An Early Smith & Wesson M100 (not 100-1) 1980 Police Handcuffs with PATS PENDING stamp!!!

These are the American Smith & Wesson model M100 handcuffs that came out about 1979. The patent wasn't granted until 1981, so the fact that these have PAT'S PENDING on means they are an early model, which is very cool to own!

These were the first time they had their new design of double lock whereby the internal spring also was the double-lock itself. These are stamped with their old Springfield location and soon after this they moved to Houlton.

Basically these are basically identical in function as the modern M100-1. The only real difference is the way the handcuffs are manufactured. Modern ones use rivets to hold everything together, whereas these old M100 have indents around the edge to help line the pieces up correctly and then heat, coupled with a special material added during construction sort of welds everything together. Apparently this older method was more secure of holding the handcuffs together. The modern rivet method is cheaper but still effective.

There was an revision of this M100 whereby the double locking window was not all the way through the cuff, but only was open on the front-facing cheek plate. But they quickly altered the design by having the hole go right through for easy double-locking from either side.

When I received them, the bow on one side was bent a bit and would not freely swing-through without being forced and the double strand was slightly bowed outwards. But I rectified this with a vise and a few bashes and bends by hand which gave these cuffs the chiropractic adjustment needed to function normally and healthily!! 😜

They seemed a bit hazy on the surface so I gave them a light once-over with some 0000 steel wool with some Autosol mixed into it and then after wiping the residue off I wax polished them, as is typical for me, with Renaissance wax. Of course I used some PMA Brake and clutch cleaner to blast out the internals before re-lubricating and cleaning them.

Lovely handcuffs! I wanted an M100 for years but when I found these and the fact they have PATS PENDING on them, since I found nothing else to buy I had to get these before anyone else.  About the only place I see these being used any more are on TV and movies, because the prop departments would have gimmicked them many years ago and never needed to throw them out with the little use they get.

Enjoy!