[00:00.000 --> 00:05.980]  Good morning everybody. My name is Stephen and I am representing the Kansas City chapter of
[00:05.980 --> 00:12.040]  TOOL. And today we're going to do a really short video for you on cuff stuff. We're going to talk
[00:12.040 --> 00:15.800]  about handcuffs. We're going to tell you the different pieces of them. We're going to tell
[00:15.800 --> 00:20.060]  you about the key and how the key works. We're going to tell you how the inner workings work.
[00:20.060 --> 00:24.560]  And we're going to tell you how, if you don't have a key, to get yourself out of a nice pair
[00:24.560 --> 00:30.500]  of handcuffs. Now, this is going to be a disclaimer first. Remember, if the police
[00:30.500 --> 00:37.140]  put you in handcuffs because they're arresting you or detaining you, it is very ill-advised
[00:37.140 --> 00:43.560]  to get yourself out of the handcuffs. If you do that, we take no responsibility for that, number
[00:43.560 --> 00:49.340]  one. And number two, you're going to find yourself in a much worse situation than you were in before.
[00:49.340 --> 00:56.040]  This is just to be used for fun. This is not to be used to get yourself out of handcuffs if you
[00:56.040 --> 01:02.640]  have been detained or arrested by the police. Again, TOOL takes no responsibility for that.
[01:02.640 --> 01:07.960]  We are merely here to teach you the inner workings of the various locking mechanisms that exist in
[01:07.960 --> 01:15.480]  the world and their various flaws. So, let's start with a very simple pair of handcuffs.
[01:15.480 --> 01:21.700]  A handcuff is made up of multiple different pieces. This is the ratchet arm. Now, the ratchet
[01:21.700 --> 01:28.980]  arm is what swings and allows it to go around your wrist. We also have the housing. We have the
[01:28.980 --> 01:36.820]  little keyhole. Inside of our housing, we have what's called the pawl or the P-A-W-L. It is a
[01:36.820 --> 01:44.920]  set of teeth that actually is what causes your ratchet arm teeth to lock in and not be able to
[01:44.920 --> 01:52.360]  be pulled free. Now, underneath your pawl, you're going to have a spring. The spring is what allows
[01:52.360 --> 01:58.580]  the pawl to be compressed down to let you out. And it's also what pushes the pawl back up in
[01:58.580 --> 02:04.700]  order to make sure that the handcuffs don't get tighter or don't get looser. That's the whole
[02:04.700 --> 02:11.860]  point of it. So, let's take a look at our key. This is a handcuff key. It's very, very simple.
[02:11.860 --> 02:18.500]  You see, it's very small. It's made of solid metal. And all it has is just this one little
[02:18.500 --> 02:26.660]  notch in here. Now, that's because inside of here, what we have is we have a little metal lip.
[02:26.760 --> 02:34.520]  So, what happens is when you insert your key, your key is going to connect onto that metal lip.
[02:34.700 --> 02:40.780]  And as you push it down, it's compressing the spring. And it's what allows your handcuff ratchet
[02:40.780 --> 02:50.960]  arm to freely spin. Now, you can see that when I let go of it, now the pawl engages your ratchet
[02:50.960 --> 02:56.420]  arm. And you can hear the little clicks. And that's what's keeping it in there. So, what you've
[02:56.420 --> 03:01.060]  really got is you've got little teeth that are down in here. And you've got teeth that are on
[03:01.060 --> 03:08.500]  your ratchet arm. Your ratchet arm teeth are going to engage your pawl teeth. And they're going to
[03:08.500 --> 03:15.480]  set in. When you try to pull it backwards, it doesn't work because the teeth are interlocking.
[03:15.580 --> 03:20.160]  That's what keeps you safe from being able to get out of them. But it's also what
[03:20.160 --> 03:25.440]  tries to keep you safe from being able to further ratchet it down. That way, you know,
[03:25.440 --> 03:30.520]  you don't get it too tight around your wrists. Now, if for some reason we find ourselves without
[03:30.740 --> 03:36.600]  a key, let's say we find ourselves maybe handcuffed to a bed. I don't know your situation and I don't
[03:36.600 --> 03:43.860]  judge. So, what would we use in that case? So, one of the main tools that we would use is a very
[03:43.860 --> 03:50.320]  simple lock pick. And this is just called a lifter. Now, if we look at our lifter, we can see that it
[03:50.320 --> 03:59.100]  is very, very similar to our key. All it is, it's just a very simple hook. So, we want to mimic the
[03:59.100 --> 04:07.360]  motion of the handcuff key into the lock. So, we locate our lock, we take our lifter,
[04:07.360 --> 04:12.920]  we slide it into the very top, and all we're going to do is go up and to the right and twist
[04:12.920 --> 04:21.000]  just a little bit until we have engaged the metal lip in the pawl and compress the spring down,
[04:21.000 --> 04:27.860]  pushing the pawl back down in order to open our handcuffs. So, let me demonstrate that one more
[04:27.860 --> 04:34.120]  time. We're going to take our lifter, we are going to put it right into our keyhole, we're
[04:34.120 --> 04:39.400]  going to move it up and to the right, and then we're just going to give it a very simple and
[04:39.400 --> 04:46.200]  light twist. Once you feel it engage, all you need to do is pull the arm, the ratchet arm out,
[04:46.200 --> 04:51.940]  and then you can let go because now you've gotten yourself out of that. Now, you can really use a
[04:51.940 --> 04:54.700]  lot of other different picks. You could use a half diamond if you wanted, or really whatever
[04:54.700 --> 05:00.840]  one you have around. It just needs to fit properly into the hole and it needs to mimic what the key
[05:00.840 --> 05:06.520]  looks like, or as close as you can get to that. Because remember, all that exists within here
[05:06.520 --> 05:13.980]  is just a little metal lip and that is all that you are touching. So, as long as your tool can
[05:13.980 --> 05:20.160]  touch that lip and is strong enough to push it down and maintain the downward pressure while you
[05:20.160 --> 05:29.790]  pull the ratchet arm out, that's really all you need to be able to do that. There's also another
[05:29.790 --> 05:35.350]  way with which you can do that if you don't, for some reason, have access to the keyhole or you
[05:35.350 --> 05:39.510]  don't have anything that's going to work in there. And what we would use is called a shim. A shim is
[05:39.710 --> 05:45.610]  a very, very, very thin piece of metal. You can make them out of titanium, which lasts a lot longer,
[05:45.610 --> 05:50.710]  or you can make them out of a simple pop can. Now, if you're going to make them out of a pop can,
[05:50.710 --> 05:56.050]  just remember they're not going to last nearly as long because they are very, very, very thin,
[05:56.050 --> 06:04.450]  lightweight aluminum. So, in order for a shim to work, you're just going to stick it right down in
[06:04.450 --> 06:12.110]  between your ratchet arm and your paw. And what that shim is doing is it's pushing those teeth
[06:12.110 --> 06:17.310]  out of the way and it's making it so that there can't be a connection between the teeth on your
[06:17.310 --> 06:23.070]  ratchet arm and the teeth on your paw. Keep in mind that when you do this, you are most likely
[06:23.070 --> 06:30.670]  going to end up tightening the handcuff one to two notches as you push the piece of metal into there.
[06:30.670 --> 06:34.950]  So, if it's already very tight or you're already at the very end because you have small wrists or
[06:34.950 --> 06:41.150]  the person put them on too tight, this method may not work or it may put it in so tight that it
[06:41.150 --> 06:46.830]  starts to cut off the circulation and it starts to actually hurt you. So, please be aware of that.
[06:46.830 --> 06:53.990]  If you want to test it and play with it, make it multiple notches too big for your hand. That way,
[06:53.990 --> 06:58.950]  when you push the shim in and it locks it down a couple notches, you're not hurting yourself. You're
[06:58.950 --> 07:04.750]  just putting it right where it should be in the first place. So, that is a very, very simple
[07:04.750 --> 07:11.030]  overview of a handcuff, of how a handcuff works, and how you can get yourself out of one. Remember,
[07:11.030 --> 07:17.470]  the handcuff key is very, very simple and all you need in order to mimic it is a simple tool
[07:17.470 --> 07:24.350]  such as a lockpick lifter or a lockpick half diamond. Anything that mimics the key is going
[07:24.350 --> 07:28.350]  to work. It's going to be able to get you out of there. And once again, I will remind you,
[07:28.350 --> 07:35.370]  if you get placed in handcuffs by the authorities, please do not try to get yourself out. And we
[07:35.370 --> 07:40.690]  absolutely do not and will not condone that. You will find yourself in much worse trouble.
[07:40.690 --> 07:44.690]  If you have further questions about handcuffs, or you want to talk about some of the more advanced
[07:44.690 --> 07:49.890]  types of handcuffs, or even the international handcuffs, please find the right channel in the
[07:51.190 --> 07:55.470]  Defcon Lockpick Village and we would be more than happy to discuss this with you.
[07:55.470 --> 07:56.790]  Thank you so much for watching.