Best keychain knife 2017

22-rimfire said:
The Spyderco Dog Tag appeals to me. You have to ask yourself the question... Do you want to carry mostly a knife on your key chain or some sort of multitool that happens to have a blade on your key chain? I like SAKs but I find the Classic too small, even for the tools. I choose the Leatherman Ps4 Squirt. The blade seldom gets used, but I use the little pliers a lot. But the blade is there if I have nothing else with me and I have used it a time or three.
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This to some degree. I don't like the idea of a dedicated knife on my keyring. To me, a knife is a one trick pony with just the single use. But even a little Vic classic has so many different uses. A knife blade that is thin and razor sharp for opening packages and cutting twine or whatever. The SD tip of the nail file works on small and medium Phillips screws and even opens imported beer bottles, scissors for detailed cutting and nail maintenance and light pliers work with care. Even light copper wire cutting if you go all the way back in the scissors jaws near the pivot. Tweezers for a lot of things from splinters to roach clip.

I love the Leatherman squirt, but it's over the line weight wise for keyring duty. More a coin pocket tool. I never imagined I'd have so much use for small pliers until I got old and had senior citizen arthritic fingers.

The older I got, the more I liked multi use items.
 
Back in the '90s, I started carrying a small knife on my keyring; a Buck Mini-Buck. Then after a couple years, I switched that out for a red-handled Spyderco Ladybug (old AUS-6 version). I carried that one on my keyring for many years. In all that time, I could count the number of times I used those knives on the fingers of both hands. I eventually took the Ladybug off of my keyring and never carried another with my keys.

IMO, something like a SAK Classic or any of the similar-sized models, an SAK Executive, or a Leatherman Micra would be better.

However...I find I don't like any knife attached to a keyring. Then to use it, I'd have to bring out all my keys just to use this little knife/tool. I'd rather carry any keychain-sized knife loose in my pocket. Then I'm much more likely to use it, without the added weight/bulk of the keys hanging off of it.

Jim
 
[QUOTE="James Y, post: 17565695, member: 105716"
However...I find I don't like any knife attached to a keyring. Then to use it, I'd have to bring out all my keys just to use this little knife/tool. I'd rather carry any keychain-sized knife loose in my pocket. Then I'm much more likely to use it, without the added weight/bulk of the keys hanging off of it.

Jim[/QUOTE]

This is exactly what drove my journey to experimenting with various ways of keyring carry. At first I tend just the ring mount, but overtime I tried to use the knife, a bundle of keys jangled in the way. Then I moved to a easy to release clip on the classic. This was just okay but then I had to unclip the knife use it, then reclaim it. Nah!

Finally I saw the black final sheath in a Victorinox catalogue and I go tone. It was okay, but then I thought maybe I could make a better one from real leather. I did and it was the real through to convenient carry of a small knife on the keyring. The simple pouch sheath, made a bit snug to avoid loss, was like a whole new ball game. Just pull knife from sheath, use it, then put back in sheath. Plus the leather sheath kept it from getting beat up by the keys.



This can be used with any small keyring size knife like a Spyderco ladybug, small 58 or 74mm SAK's, or any small penknife size tool. Makes life easier.
 
I’ve carried a SOG Key Knife on my keychain for several years and I’m very satisfied with the little knife.

It’s shaped like a key so it doesn’t draw attention. It also has a real working back lock. For less than $10 you can’t teally miss. The blade is 1.5” so it only works for small tasks but I end up using it almost daily.

SOG also makes a cool looking keychain sized knife called the Micron. It also has a 1.5” blade but no lock. It looks like a knife not a key.

The Gerber Curve is a slick little multi-tool that’s sized perfectly for a keychain.

The Leatherman CS Keychain is also a good little multi-tool. The carabiner style latch is great. You can quickly detach it from the ring so it can be used without the hassle of getting fouled up with your keys.

Those Swiss Army Knife Classic SD knives are great. They come in a lot of fun colors and themes but also good old fashioned red. I give these as small thank you gifts all the time and people love them. Especially the ladies.
 
SAK classic SD for me. Id love an Alox classic but the lack of toothpick and tweezers keeps it in the store and not on my keys.
 
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rcrfc said:
SAK classic for me. Id love an Alox classic but the lack of toothpick and tweezers keeps I in the store and not on my keys.
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Honestly what are you going to do if you eat popcorn at the movie theatre and don't have your SAK toothpick with you. I wish Swiss Bianco made some scales for the classic. That woukd sort of scratch the itch for an alox model with toothpick and tweezers.

Has anybody out there tried the famous Spyderco Ladybug and SAK classic keyringed together combo? I've also seen mini flashlight + ladybug.
 
These little guys can really cut for their small size.

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I think if I were attaching a dedicated folding knife to a key ring, serrated may be the way to go. Jack Knife's concept with the leather pocket sheath isn't a bad approach. But, more "stuff" to include in my heavily used pants pockets for me is not very appealing. But I do use a pocket slip with larger GEC folders as I really don't want to scratch them all up with keys and coins. So, it's what you get used to mostly....
 
Velitrius said:
Leatherman makes the "Style" keychain multi-tool that comes with tweezers. They make a couple of variants. Might be worth a look.
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The Style was another contender for my keychain, with the PS version having pliers, scissors, tweezers, etc. but it lacks a blade. The CS version has a blade, but scissors instead of pliers. I would've picked one of the PS versions up a long time ago if they had the scissors replaced with a blade. The Micra was another I considered, but again has scissors instead of pliers (and not-so-great tweezers).

Maybe I'll just get a Squirt and carve out a slot in the handles for the SAK tweezers and toothpick. :p
 
I currently keep a LM Juice on my keychain, but rarely if ever use the knife. I preferred the Gerber Curve if I actually used the blade a lot, because for the size, it had a stronger blade, was easier to deploy, and locked... Plus a few usable tools. I like the Squirt because it has more usable tools that I occasionally need.
 
I've tried various from Spyderco: ManBug, LadyBug, Squarehead and DogTag. The one I like most is the one I've been carrying the past six months: ManBug Salt Sheepfoot. It has a near 2" blade of H-1 rust-free steel, weighs only 0.8 ounces and the combination of SpyderEdge and Sheepsfoot makes it very practical. About $48.

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I gifted a Kershaw Cinder to my father who had never carried a knife before. Now he carries and uses it every day. From what little I've handled it its very nice for its size and is a great value at its price.
 
Also add the Kershaw Shuffle to the list, nice little knife for $5 (yes, I found the exact same knife on a particular website (SMKW) that was listed for both $4.99 and $14.99, I bought 4 of them for the $4.99 :)

Type in Kershaw shuffle and sort by price ;) (just a hint lol)
 
I've owned an H1 Ladybug and will say that it served it's purpose well but man it seemed pricey for what I got...

The Byrd Finch 2 seems to be a better value.
Cold Steel Micro Recon 1 looks to be a solid option but I've never had one.
 
panoz77 said:
Also add the Kershaw Shuffle to the list, nice little knife for $5 (yes, I found the exact same knife on a particular website (SMKW) that was listed for both $4.99 and $14.99, I bought 4 of them for the $4.99 :)

Type in Kershaw shuffle and sort by price ;) (just a hint lol)
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You put a knife that big on your keys ?
 
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