A warning about fake handcuffs
You may have to turn up your volume a bit in this one, my voice is a bit soft. Once I got a present which almost got me in trouble, a pair of cuffs that aren’t real ones but pretty much look the same and so does the key. In this video I compare them a bit and also tell you how to identify the fake ones. There is a real danger in mixing real and fake cuffs, find out why by watching this video!
Those cuffs aren’t fake, they’re just cheaply made. And yeah, “standard” keys do vary.
I had a cheaply made set with a much more serious problem. When you unlock handcuffs, the little nub on the end of the key engages an internal lever that pulls the locking teeth away from the teeth on the movable part of the cuff. The tolerances were off, so turning the key caused the nub to slip past the lever instead of engaging it. Not only doesn’t this open the cuff, the key is trapped so you can’t try another one. Then the only way to get them off is to “shim” the ratchet, but that won’t work if you’ve double-locked them.