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Cuff Cleaning

3K views 50 replies 33 participants last post by  kytprice 
#1 ·
Arrested a dude that was Hep C positive. Geeked up on meth, denied it but can't no one tell me different, and fidgeting. This caused the skin on his wrist to tear and he bled on my cuffs.

I got some high speed cleaning stuff from my buddy that they use to clean up at crimes scenes, hospital ORs, etc.

My question, after all that typing, is what do you guys do after cleaning your cuffs? I just took some CLP and rubbed it on the side of the cuffs and put some on the single strand and worked it into the double strand. Not dripping but enough to put a little shine on it.

I was carful not to get much into the key hole and locking mechanism.
 
#2 ·
I let the cleaner soak until dry. Then I spray the entire cuff down with a good gun oil. Make sure to work it inside the mechanism, inside the strands and on all over the outside including the link (chain or hinge). Let it sit with the key hole down for several hours, shake out all the oil I can, work the key in both the lock and double lock mechanisms, spin the hinge to work out rust and work the oil in, and then wipe everything down really well. I do that about two or three times a year anyway and after every sanitizing. You'll be amazed how much crap will come out of the joint between the strand and the base of the cuff after just a few months.
 
#6 · (Edited)
I have ****canned a few pairs of cuffs before.

Just wasn't worth the effort.

The way I was taught is to spray them down with Cavicide and let air dry. That should get them booger free enough to safely handle with latex gloves. Boil them in an old pot for a couple of minutes. The heat of boiling water should not be high enough to damage the heat treatment of the steel. Hang them up and the residual heat is enough to cook off any water in the internals. Dry lube the inside by putting a little graphite in the keyhole and shaking them around for a minute. Oil the hinge with a little CLP. Done.
 
#4 ·
I use very hot water (not in the station kitchen area though) and Isopropyl Alcohol (IPA). We have spray bottles of IPA at most stations, or even just alcohol hand wash if that's all available.

A bit of oil on the mechanism and back in the pouch.
 
#8 ·
Wipe them down with a disposable bleach wipe / healthcare wipe. If they're nickel they don't need anything more than that. If they're blued then light oil to keep rust at bay. I think you guys are overthinking this. I sure wouldn't toss a set of cuffs because a dude had hep C and bled on them. ****, using that logic, I'd have to cut off some of my own body parts and discard them.
 
#9 ·
Wipe them down with a disposable bleach wipe / healthcare wipe. If they're nickel they don't need anything more than that. If they're blued then light oil to keep rust at bay. I think you guys are overthinking this. I sure wouldn't toss a set of cuffs because a dude had hep C and bled on them. ****, using that logic, I'd have to cut off some of my own body parts and discard them.
The ones I tossed had poo on them. I ain't cleaning caca off of handcuffs.
 
#10 ·
Hand sanitiser (alcohol) generally does it. Bleach if they are extra skanky.
 
#11 ·
I probably would've just gotten new cuffs.
I did that I would need multiple sets everyday. Easily 80% of the people i arrest have hep C or something else disgusting.

Spray with a good hospital cleaner (my agency keeps a bunch on hand). The lube with gun oil
 
#13 ·
Thanks for the replies gentlemen.

As cuffs are non-porous I'm not going to toss a set of new cuffs because of contamination of a blood born disease. I'm w/collim1 on the poop thing though.

My main concern was the lube. I remember reading or hearing somewhere, that getting liquid lube into the key hole etc is a no go.
 
#15 ·
When we were doing warrants, we had a couple of buckets of strong bleach water handy for dropping cuffs into. Let 'em soak until there were several pair in the bucket then after several minutes dump them out rinse and dry, a little oil in the right places, GTG.
 
#16 ·
Spray bottle with bleach and water. Then I use whatever gun lube I have laying around. I drip it into openings and rub it all over.
 
#19 ·
then I would blow out with compressed air. Using CLP or FP10 lube the rivet area with a drop of oil, work in and wipe off. For the ratchet, I would dust them with some graphite. Work in and wipe the cuff.
 
#20 ·
I worked in the field for 30 years most of it around crime scenes. Those homeless guys always want to shake your hand.... and I pull tv cables thru blood and needles and god knows what. I always kept a pint off 95 percent isopropyl alcohol and a spray can of break cleaner. I would spray your cuffs with brake cleaner and wipe off with breach wipes or alcohol. That is going to kill off anything you can get.

The one area you deal with that I have had zero experience is searching people and grabbing folks to hook them up and arrest them. I have no such experience , but sharp needles and razor blades and knives would scare me a lot. Again If something comes up alcohol poured over your skin does a great job of killing stuff you don't want.
 
#25 ·
I worked in the field for 30 years most of it around crime scenes. Those homeless guys always want to shake your hand.... and I pull tv cables thru blood and needles and god knows what. I always kept a pint off 95 percent isopropyl alcohol and a spray can of break cleaner. I would spray your cuffs with brake cleaner and wipe off with breach wipes or alcohol. That is going to kill off anything you can get.

The one area you deal with that I have had zero experience is searching people and grabbing folks to hook them up and arrest them. I have no such experience , but sharp needles and razor blades and knives would scare me a lot. Again If something comes up alcohol poured over your skin does a great job of killing stuff you don't want.
Sharp needles and razor blades scare us a lot too;

We searched a car the other day that ended up having 37 used syringes in it (the person was a heroin user) ; we had to collect them all as evidence, and we used a pair of long needle nosed pliers ($6 at Harbor Freight!) to search the car a collect all of the evidence.....

I think I am gonna add a set of metal kitchen tongs to the kit, as for the last year we have been getting more and more sharps.
 
#21 ·
Spit on cuffs, wipe on bad guy's shirt, back in the pouch. Until I can get outside and throw them in some dirt.
 
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#22 ·
Spit on cuffs, wipe on bad guy's shirt, back in the pouch. Until I can get outside and throw them in some dirt.
I think of the nastiness accumulating on them as the seasoning on the wok.

The wok, the wok, the wok of life.
 
#23 ·
Hydrogen peroxide sprayed on with a cheap little fingertip sprayer from the drug store. I learned that from an ER doctor after I had a blood exposure. I was not sure how to clean my duty belt or equipment without bleaching it. Worked like a charm and still use it for K9 stuff when the dog bites his tongue and wipes it all over my pants.
 
#27 ·
Thanks; it's a little outside the box, but I think that using some sort of tool (like the tongs) to dig and grasp objects in the tighter spaces (like between the seat and the console, etc) is a good safety practice in this day and age, with the rise of intravenous drug use (a byproduct of state tightening up on prescription opioids ) and the tongs are cheap enough that I can replace them easily, maybe buy a few pairs to hand out to some of the other guys...
 
#28 ·
Sharp needles and razor blades scare us a lot too;

We searched a car the other day that ended up having 37 used syringes in it (the person was a heroin user) ; we had to collect them all as evidence, and we used a pair of long needle nosed pliers ($6 at Harbor Freight!) to search the car a collect all of the evidence.....

I think I am gonna add a set of metal kitchen tongs to the kit, as for the last year we have been getting more and more sharps.
I like that idea...adding HF to the list of stops on my errands this afternoon.

I recovered a stolen car a few weeks ago with used needles all over the place. Didn't have any sharps containers in Evidence so I ended up filling a one-gallon paint can, and I think there were still a few left over. I like the tongs though - definitely would have felt more comfortable going through that nastiness...
 
#30 ·
Boil them in water with vinegar when you take them out they dry almost immediately then spray wd40.
Also dishwasher with them open works well top rack use the pots and pants setting heat dry, WD40 after.
 
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