Autopian Asks superfans will note that we already did a keychain question back in July of last year (What Keychains Are You Rocking?), but that Ask was more about the fun little tchotchkes like those below that some us hang off our keyrings to amuse ourselves, or perhaps to alert others to our level of car-coolness.
With that in mind, I can’t help but think of a boss I once had who, when he had a Ferrari in the 1980s, would casually place his keys on the bar when sidling up to a lady during happy hour. Or so I was told – the Ferrari was gone by the time I started there. I was also told the reason the Ferrari was no more was because it was once parked behind a lifted Jeep, and when the Jeep driver looked into his rear-view and saw nothing but clear driveway, he shifted into R and promptly backed over the Ferrari, monster-truck style. This story was confirmed by both my former boss and the Jeep driver, who was an employee at the time, and remained one even after going Full Monster Jam on the boss’s Ferrari.
Needless to say, those guys rule.
Anyway, back to this keychain query, where the focus is more on utility. I wouldn’t call myself an EDC nerd (EveryDay Carry – though knowing the term does kinda make me an EDC nerd, I guess), but I do enjoy choosing, or dare I say curating, nicely designed tools to keep on my person throughout the day. The level of kit I have in my pockets varies with what I expect the day to have in store for me, but I usually keep it pretty simple with just a flashlight and a knife (as seen in the top graphic). By affixing them to my keyring, I don’t have to think about making sure I have them with me – if I have my keys, I have my knife and flashlight. Add an AirTag in case I lose track of the whole shebang, and that’s my keychain situation.
The knife is a Victorinox SD Classic, which packs a small blade, scissors, nail file, screwdriver, toothpick, and tweezers into a mere 2.3 inches. I don’t think I’ve ever used the toothpick, but all the other items have seen plenty of action. I do wish it had a bottle opener though, as I usually grab a Mexican Coke on the way out of Home Depot, and the lovely glass bottle’s cap doesn’t twist off. Thankfully, Victorinox also offers the Rally, which is identical to the Classsic SD but swaps the scissors for a neatly designed tool that combines a bottle opener, wire stripper, and Phillips screwdriver.
As for the flashlight, it’s an Olight i3E EOS. I like this lil’ guy because it runs on a single AAA battery instead of button cells, and there’s no switch to accidentally click – to turn it on and off, you just twist the threaded lens end to make or break contact with the battery. Simple and goof-proof – and waterproof, too, thanks to an o-ring seal. Best of all, it’s just ten bucks.
“Pffft, I just use the flashlight on my phone.” Well yeah, so do I, but sometimes you need to use both your hands to fix whatever you’re shining the flashlight onto. The Olight is easy to tuck behind an ear or hold with your teeth in those situations, and it’s a backup if your phone dies.
I may not be prepared for everything, but I’m gonna be prepared for some things.
Your turn:
3 keys for work, 2 keys for home, a remote fob for my car, and a Hot Wheel “Coupe Clip” as a keychain decoration.
I can’t stand a huge key jangle on my car keys. Fob and airtag and antigravity battery jumper only
my main house keys are a little more, house key, mail key, office key, office fob and citibike key and a simple nylon loop.
BUT the one thing it must be, is one key ring. multiple keyrings are a scourge
I hate shit on my keys, so it’s: fob, ignition/lock key, house key, mail key. My motorcycle keys are on carabiners, with just the bike key and house key. I know, I’m very exciting in my choices.
For the past 20 years I walk through buildings where knives (and other weapons) are prohibited so not carrying a knife on my keychain. For my daily driver I’ve got my BMW keyfob, office building key, house key, mailbox key, and a key to a locker in a Swedish hospital with its accompanying green aluminum key tag stamped with the word ORKOPEDEN on one side and 13 on the other side.
my keys are organized by vehicle and each key clip has:
E70 X5 key, gold lego brick (gift from my youngest sister a few years ago), work badge, and a little brembo six-pot caliper (we just took brembo on as a supplier at work)
e30 key, battery cutoff key, palestine map keychain
MB GL350 key, house key, monkeys paw keychain, in-laws house key
all of the spare keys (one e70, one MB, 3 e30, multiple house keys, toolbox lock keys) are on one large custodian-style keychain
all keys hang on an e30-grill designed key chain holder made out of powdercoated stainless steel that i’ve had for north of a deace
client keys all hang in the garage
Just the car key and fob. The house and miscellaneous keys are on their own ring on a carabiner. They can be clipped to whatever car key I am driving that day, but I always unclip them before actually driving so they don’t bang around on the dash.
Literally just the keys for that vehicle and maybe a flexible rubber dangle to make grabbing it slightly more easy. Y’all sell any of those flexible rubber keychain dangles? I’d totally buy one.
My house keys go on a keyring with my work electronic entry fob so that it’s a lot more difficult for me to forget either.
I think the rubber keychain dangle is called a wrist coil and I have a different one on every keyring. Promotional places sell them with with printed logo tags for less than a $1 apiece.
When I google a “wrist coil” that’s just too big for what I’m talking about. I’m talking about something roughly this sized: https://rstaichiusa.com/cdn/shop/products/rsa049_d2_22ss_110x110@2x.jpg?v=1660240863
Key, plus ring so I can hang it on a hook. That is all that’s acceptable.
I carried the mini Swiss for decades. These days with proximity car fobs and touch pad doors on homes, I have no keys! I just a key fob in the trusty 5th pocket. Its so freeing, I highly recommend.
Oooh, I love this question! I joke that mine is the strongest keychain ever….
Cut inertia-reel strap from a B-1 egress system, ie: ejection seat. It is the strap that is tied to the crew that pulls them into the seat so they are firmly held while blasting through the hatch.
My old roommate/best friend worked egress and gave me one. 25ish years later it is still going strong. Which it should. It is designed to hold some crazy amount of force that I’m sure he could tell you but I forgot….
Oh, and fun part…..unlike the inertia reels in your car’s seat belt system, these are powered by explosives.
SAAB 9000s had pyrotechnic belt tensioners back in the early ‘90s.
And the Mercedes AMG SL has explody bits to bloe off the gullwing door hinges in case one gets in an accident and ends up landing upside down
Also a handful of convertibles with pyro charged head loop deployment.
That’s a good point. I’m sure they are supposed to be inspected every XX years, just as I’m sure airbags probably are and I expect a small minority of people bother
Car and house key only: I hate big keyrings and I hate jingling as I walk. My motorcycle keys are even more spartan: key and a flexible fob to help pulling it out of my pocket when wearing gloves.
I use separate rings for each car, each with its own house key and keys for other locking items which only go to that particular car; roof rack , gas caps, camper shell, etc.
The key ring is pretty simple: 8 keys and a “remove before flight” style tag on a carabiner on my left. I love carabiner carry for that!
The right side is the fun side, though, even though it’s not the key ring. I pocket carry a Milwaukee Fastback knife, but then I have this custom 3D printed belt system I designed, with a bunch of “pads” I keep on the belt and can easily clip different accessories to. The everyday accessories are two leather pouches. The rear one holds a Leatherman Surge clone, while the front one has a custom 3D printed insert to hold one of those little Victorinox knives, a lighter (occasionally used for heat shrink on wires, less often to start fires, and mostly because fire is cool), a 1/4″ hex bit sleeve, a64GB thumb drive with 10+ operating systems and free space on it, two magnets, a stub of a pencil, a mini tape measure, and a tiny working Lego compass part
I got tired of having 5lbs of crap on my keychains, especially as I started to move from older stuff to newer fob-keys.
My ’93 F150 still has that 5lbs of keys, but that’s more tradition than anything. The ignition and housekey are on the actual keychain that’s easily separated from the massive ring containing the keys to everything. The rest of my vehicle keychains just have the key to start the vehicle, a housekey, and a blipshift keychain (all color coded so I don’t have to look at what key is on what to grab it.
Another reason I moved away from the massive keychains is because I stopped going to the junkyards as much. I found that having a buttload of change in your pocket, as well as keys, could be used as a “tumbler” to clean bolts, washers, nuts, and other hardware as I walked around.
My pants pockets were filthy.
Been hit by TSA too many times with my keys, so it’s just car and house key attached to the keyring. I carry a Victorinox Evolution S101 separate from my keys so I can throw it in checked baggage or left in the car as needed. I use that knife almost daily and the locking blade has saved my fingers a few times.
When these questions post so late in the day, I don’t see them until after everyone else has weighed in. Ah well.
A Victorinox Clip 580 in wood. It cost more than the plain 580, but I do like the subtler color and sculpted shape. I get bad hangnails so having a nail clipper on me at all times is pretty important; nipping them off when they start is usually sufficient to prevent them going deep and drawing blood.
The teeny-tiny scissors included on Victorinox knives are surprisingly effective.
Less is more on mine. Car fob, BMW leather loop, silver Victorinox classic knife.
I do really miss my old Audi switchblade key, which was my go-to EDC fidget device.
I have a metal cutout of my Mustang attached to the key and a NiteIze micro carabiner so I can clip it to my belt loop. Nothing more!
Minimalist. These things have to fit in a pants pocket. Don’t want too much stuff making it uncomfortable. I do just the car key and house key. Nothing else.
Yep, car key and house key. And there’s a house key attached to each of my car keys.
There’s other crap I carry (a small knife, my wallet) but it’s not attached to my keys.
Simple three color BMW soft material tag for the 46.
The jeep is on some rhinestone leather .. i dont know.. my wife drives that.
I have very minimal key rings, by design. One for each Honda, with an ESA (European Space Agency) remove before flight keychain that a friend there has given me, a key to one of the Civics, and a house key. That’s it, I used to have big Janitor style key rings with up to a dozen keys on them, and after six months never knew what most of them were anyways.
The Mercedes-Benz “key” is on the keyring I won years ago for a trivia contest aboard a Holland America cruise. The other item on it is the electronic fob for my real estate office.
The house “key” (a Kaba Saflock) is on a separate ring.
I have two separate sets of keys for both my vehicles, because I hate bulky keys.
Truck: Two truck keys, house key, D ring.
Car: Fob, house key, D ring.
I carry an over the shoulder sling (man purse, if you will) that serves as an EDC bag. Fobs live in their own little pocket and never come out. Eyeglass cleaner, flashlight, pen, wallet, backup battery, hand sanitizer and a Samsung Smart Tag also live in there. I could never go back to a regular keyring situation at this point.
Nothing.
Not even a ring.
Just the fob.
This is the way.
I have some paracord on my fobs, so I have something to hold onto if needed, and to hang it on a hook. The e46 has a WESN MT Titanium – as it seemed necessary and it was pricey for no reason…like the e46.
Porsche 356 key ring:
1 Magnus Walker inspired leather strap, it’s from IKEA but don’t tell anyone…
1 Old tiny door key, this copy made when my car was in Canada
1 Newer ignition key, while I renovate the old ignition barrel (probably never)
1 Red battery shut off handle, like the ones on boats and race cars.
1 Key for my steering wheel lock
1 Key for my (road) wheel lock
Figaro key ring:
1 Nissan car key for all locks on the car
1 AutoLok gear- and handbrake lock key
1 “I (heart) NY” sign I found outside the garage one day 🙂