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Remember it is always best to get your heroine free as soon as possible. Escape becomes more and more difficult the longer she is left in a captive capacity from a strategic, physical, and psychological standpoint. (Also makes for a slow plot line).
Technique 1 - Breaking the Cuff
To be used if the heroine has no tools either in her EDC kit or homemade.Your heroine CAN use this technique. She would be
using torque to produce the pressure required,
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NOTE: If you are mentioning the brand of handcuff for some reason, there is a difference in how they will break and the difficulty factor. For ease of writing, I would suggest a higher quality cuff.
* In high quality handcuffs, the Rockwell Hardness of
the steel makes them fragile and brittle. They will
sheer at the line.
* Low quality hancuffs the steel is so mild that the
heroine will have to get a break in the link, thus
making them more difficult to break.
The Technique:
1. Rough up the metal* Dirt will help absorb the oil and help get the
chains to bind up.
* Any kind of surface that roughs up the links to make them less slippery and help them to bind up.
2. At the rotation pin, the heroine will want to stuff these holes on either side with anything she can get in
there to help lock up the chains
3. Leaving her non-dominant hand still, the chains will droop downward.
4. Rotate the chains until they lock up.
* In the front presentation, she would do a visual check to make sure that she has not caught two links
across one (three together). She wants to torque only two. (Three will hurt the wearer.)
5. Position her hands so that instead of coming together in prayer form, that they will pass each other. This
movement produces the physical tension on the metal that is required.
6. Move hands past each other to snap the metal
*NOTE - this will not remove the cuffs from the wrists it will merely separate the hands again. Use this technique if you want tell-tale cuffs left on the wrist.
VIDEO QUICK STUDY
This technique in action (14:26 - but move 13:00)
Breaking techniques (2:42)
Technique 2 - Pick the lock.
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inward opens outward locks. The direction you turn
will be different left to right
1. Easiest - have a key on you. If your heroine is in a
place where she is in danger, or in a job that might
endanger her, she might have a key (cheap and easily
accessible) sewn into the hems of her clothing or
taped with duct tape to the inside of her watch.
2. A little harder - have a shim. A heroine can make a
shim using a barrette, an easy EDC that she can wear
under her hair without detection.
3. Make a tool like a paper clip or bobby pin. The
bobby pin is preferred for its tensile strength and can
easily be an EDC that a heroine puts under her hair.
This would not be seen by an abductor.
ESCAPE:
1. If her hands are behind her back move them to the front.If she is not attached to something preempting this move, then the heroine should stand and work her hands down over her hips and bottom. Sit down and work to get the legs through the arms. Problems can arise if some injury, such as a broken leg, makes this more difficult. Boots make this more difficult. Removing the heroine's shoes will help her get her feet through. So she should try to toe off her day shoe. Knowing how you want this to play out will make a difference in how you dress your heroine for success or complication. (Blog Link to dressing your heroine)QUICK STUDY - video of me moving cuffs from behind my back to front position. **Turn your sound to mute so you don't have to listen to the ke-yups. Those trained exhalation sounds help reduce anxiety/panic in a fight, keep the fighter breathing, and help anesthetize pain from in-coming blows.
2. Create a tool. (No tools? Try Technique 1)
* If using a bobby pin, strip the plastic protective end off with her teeth.
* A Paper clip is easier to bend but this can also create problems.
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3. In a DOUBLE LOCK
* Pick the double lock first - use counter-
clockwise sweeps moving from 9-5. She
should hear a metallic click.
* Work on the ratcheting mechanism
Working the ratcheting mechanism can be done in two ways
1. Insert your tool into the key hole and bend it into a right angle. Then use this to push the mechanism up
and out of the way.
2. Feed the tool between the mechanisms and close the cuffs tighter while to insert the tool further until it lifts
the internal pin away from the teeth like a shim.
Picking is PREFERRED because when you shim you have to ratchet down on the cuff making it tighter. If she fails, she can cut off circulation to her hand. *NOTE ratcheting too tight is prevented by a double lock. You CAN NOT shim a double lock.
VIDEO QUICK STUDY
Video 1 (10:00) This has a clear cuff so you can see the inner workings as well as the use of a key, shim,
and paper clip.
Video 2 (11:39) Combat Application Technique Handcuff Restraint Escape - excellent hostage
scenario is silent in the first half of this video the second half has audio and is taught school-style.
Video 3 (6:49) Shimming
Video 4 (11:56) Picking a double lock. This method seems the EASIEST.