Posted: 10/31/2024 1:51:07 AM EDT
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I’m currently assigned to a patrol boat and am frequently offshore for 10+ days a month. As you can imagine, saltwater is hell on duty gear. My department bought us some Peerless superlight cuffs that were supposedly corrosion resistant. Turns out they are except for the hinge pin and inside the keyhole which have gotten rusty as hell despite doing my best to them clean, dry, and lubed. It takes a ridiculous amount of force to apply the cuffs and as difficult as it is to apply them, it’s even harder to take them off. It’s to the point where I’m not comfortable carrying them anymore. Does any have a recommendation for cuffs that will stand up to the harsh environment better? TIA |
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I’d suggest looking into Nickel plated options. I have a set of peerless nickel plated hinge cuffs I’ve carried for 10 years and they have held up great. I’m not in salt water though. But nickel plating is practical impervious to everything. I’d just put a a drop of oil in the key hole every once in a while as well as the tracks Most of the super light varieties of all brands whether alloy or plastic are still going to have regular carbon or stainless steel pins and mechanisms |
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For your application you need to find a set of Nitride treated handcuffs. Nitride has been done under a couple of trade names for decades like Melonite, Kolene, Tenifer, etc. We were an early pioneer of doing this to an AR15, which we did this on our SLR15 Excalbur rifle in 2011, SWAT Magazine did an article on it which I linked. Nitride in a sense is a surface hardening of the metal, kind of like pickling, which gives it roughly about 2000hrs saltwater resistance. You will see it has been done historically on many of our Military big bore cannons, and many firearms like Glock, Smith & Wesson M&P pistols, HK, Sig Sauer, etc. Think about how long our Officers go without wiping down a Glock to keep it from rusting, not that it shouldn't be maintained, but if you didn't wipe down a blued revolver or shotgun on a daily basis it would rust. Do not confuse blued, or black oxide finishes that some models are finished in, as bluing and oxide finishes are rust finishes, and these will rust very quickly. Early in my career I had a pair of blued hinged Peerless (I prefer hinged cuffs), and if you put them on someone who just slashed their wrists, the blood would cause them to rust within minutes. Rust is moisture, air, and steel, which blood is moisture with oxygen, so as soon as it touches blued steel it will cause it to rust. This is when I switched all my cuffs of to nickle finished, which is more rust resistant. For your environment, Nitride is the best finish you could have. I looked around the internet, and didn't find any nitride treated hinged cuffs, but Smith & Wesson has chain linked ones. Smith & Wesson has Nitride treated handcuffs, Model 100, which seem to be available from several sources, which I linked a few below. Handcuff Warehouse Galls CY6 Greg Sullivan "Sully" Weapons Armorer SLR15 Rifles DefensiveEdge.com (763) 712-0123 |
The double lock is in a bit different place than you may be used to, so take that into consideration.