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From the complete Oxford English Dictionary on CD-Rom:

'knuckle-'duster

[f. knuckle n. + duster. (orig. criminals' slang, U.S.)]

A metal instrument made to cover the knuckles, so as to protect them from injury in striking, and at the same time to add force to a blow given with the fist thus covered.

1858 Times 15 Feb. (Farmer), - Knuckle-duster+a formidable American instrument, made of brass, which slips easily on to the four fingers of the hand, and having a projecting surface, across the knuckles, is calculated+to inflict serious injury on the person against whom it is directed.

1861 All Year Round 13 July 372 - But what the crew most feared, was the free use of the ‘brass knuckles’ or ‘knuckle-dusters’.+ These are brass finger-guards, not unlike what the Roman gladiators called the cestus; they constitute a regular portion of the equipment of an officer of the American mercantile marine.

1862 Illustr. Lond. News 11 Jan. 51/2 - The American ‘shoulder-hitters’, ‘knuckle-dusters’, and ‘gum-ticklers’.

1862 Ann. Reg. 193 - One of them struck him a fearful blow with a ‘knuckle-duster’.

1873 Slang Dict. s.v., - Sometimes a knuckle-duster has knobs or points projecting, so as to mutilate and disfigure the person struck.

1870 Standard 15 Dec., - I have been in many mobs, and have been charged both by cavalry and the knuckleduster brigade in Paris.