Professional grade handcuffs are opened within seconds, using a humble office paperclip.

Full tutorial: http://bit.ly/EscapingHandcuffs

Note: The purpose of this experiment and demonstration is to provide knowledge and options in cases of emergency, kidnapping, abuse, and to provide insight into how magicians and escape artists may get themselves free. Do not try escaping from police. That will do you and them a disservice, and just make your life more difficult.

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Music by Jason Shaw (RP-Clattertrap)
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Project Inspired By: The fictional character “Sarah Connor” in Terminator 2, who used a paperclip to pick locks and escape from the asylum. Seemed like it could be a good skill to know.

Also be sure to check out Kipkay’s excellent tutorial: http://bit.ly/IBKipkayHandcuffs

WARNING: Prolonged use of over-tightened handcuffs can lead to nerve damage in the wrists. Do not attempt this trick while in police custody. That would be illegal and you will most likely make yourself the subject of an intense use of force. If you’re practicing for entertainment purposes or survival skills, be sure to have a key on hand, and a trained assistant to help in case of emergency. Have fun, but always remember that any actions you take are at your own risk.

Project History & More Info:

There have been a couple movies in the past that got me thinking about how picking locks with a paperclip could be a very useful skill to develop. Paperclips are very common, so they’re a practical and convenient option in times of emergency. When I was a kid watching Terminator 2, I was impressed when the fictional character “Sarah Connor” used a paperclip to pick locks on her restraining harness, then open her door in the asylum. It seemed like it could be a good skill to know, so I’ve practiced when I’ve had the time to play with it.

Other movies that influenced my desire to learn, were “The Time Traveler’s Wife”, because each time he jumped around in time he was naked, and had to pick locks for shelter and clothing.

“The Titanic” was also influential when Jack was handcuffed to a post, and chanced having his hands chopped off while trying to escape from the ship. It would have been safer and more convenient to pick the lock and remove the shackles.

So far I have been successful in picking these types of locks with paperclips, but in this video I wanted to demonstrate how to escape from handcuffs, because they aren’t the most complicated of locks, and make for good practice and entertainment.

To gain experience, I searched around on the internet for a pair of professional grade, steel, double-locking, hinged handcuffs. The thinking was that these would be among the tougher of handcuffs to escape from, because of the limited range of motion.

When the cuffs arrived, it only took a few seconds to realize that a paperclip could actually open them without any modifications whatsoever! However, trying to escape while wearing them posed a challenge, because my hands couldn’t bend enough to maneuver the clip into the keyhole. So to make it a little more user friendly I developed a quick and easy modification to the paperclip to form a makeshift key that could be used with the 4th and middle fingers, in cooperation with the thumb muscle.

The project video shows in depth how the handcuffs work, and how to escape if they’ve been double locked, so look for that in another video.

Now obviously handcuffs aren’t the most complicated of locks, but that doesn’t mean you should ever try escaping from the police. If you do, it’ll actually make your life a lot more difficult. They will most likely cuff you behind your back, which poses new challenges, and if the keyholes aren’t on the front side, it will make picking the lock a bit more difficult, and time consuming. Your hands may also be cuffed facing away from each other making it so you can’t use your fingers to guide the clip.

Perhaps most importantly, attempting an escape from police is illegal, and you’ll most certainly be doing yourself a disservice by making yourself a target for intense force. So it’s just better to respect the law, and stay out of trouble in the first place.