PSA: Make sure your handcuff key holes are accessible

[Lotharjulz]

Another weekend and another folly to share. Ended up with 5 sets of hinged handcuffs on my wrists and then to find my partner didn't leave the keyholes facing outwards at the ends. Supposed to be a short session turned into a long ordeal and some bruising

[vm1971]

When I bought my first handcuffs, I had two close calls. The first was cuffing my wrists around the steering wheel of my car and dropping the key. The driver of the car next to me thankfully didn't seem to notice my predicament when they were leaving and I eventually picked up the key with my toes. The next was rushing home after that to test them out behind my back. I put them on and of course, when I tried to get free, I realized that the keyholes needed to face the other way. It's a good thing they weren't hinged or I would have been in real trouble. It took about an hour of twisting and squirming to get the key in and free myself, even with the help of a mirror. If I had used any additional bondage gear, like around my arms and chest, I'd have also been in real trouble.

Handcuffs are dangerous when used carelessly.

And 20+ years after that, I had one more mishap. I used ankle-sized cuffs around my wrists. As in, I put both wrists into a single cuff so they were mashed together. Of course, there's no way to manipulate a key into a keyhole when cuffed like this. I was also more heavily bound... with a blindfold, gag and earplugs, belt around my arms and chest, belts around my thighs and knees, ankles cuffed and the other cuff from my wrists cuffed around my ankle-cuffs putting myself into a hogtie. It wasn't a true mishap as I knew my wife would eventually get home and let me out... after she had some fun with me.

[Shannon SteelSlave]

Handcuffs are dangerous when used carelessly.

And 20+ years after that, I had one more mishap. I used ankle-sized cuffs around my wrists. As in, I put both wrists into a single cuff so they were mashed together. Of course, there's no way to manipulate a key into a keyhole when cuffed like this.

Now I want to try that. Have to use my teeth to operate the key. Maybe a frozen device to hold a gag that releases when it melts.
Yes, always face at least 1 key hole toward your thumbs. Preferably both.

[Lotharjulz]

Handcuffs are dangerous when used carelessly.

And 20+ years after that, I had one more mishap. I used ankle-sized cuffs around my wrists. As in, I put both wrists into a single cuff so they were mashed together. Of course, there's no way to manipulate a key into a keyhole when cuffed like this.

Now I want to try that. Have to use my teeth to operate the key. Maybe a frozen device to hold a gag that releases when it melts.
Yes, always face at least 1 key hole toward your thumbs. Preferably both.

As exciting as that sounds, not sure I want to give my partner that idea.. well... Maybe.

Thanks for sharing that!

[Riddle]

I have had some near misses with handcuffs. Now I am paranoid about the way the key hole faces. Thank you for the reminder.

[kinbaku]

One of the first things I tried was one handcuff with the key opening up and the other with the opening down. So I could practice for when I had to place them wrong.
Make sure you try every possibility: in front of the body and behind the body, with the elbows tied to the body or to each other, blindfolded, ...
That way I know how far I can close the handcuffs to have enough freedom in every circumstance to open them if I put them on wrong. Because it happened so quickly that you still do them wrong: despite the fact that I always pay attention, it has happened to me that one of the 2 was wrong.