Dedicated keychain knife?

Vic Alox Mini Champ is currently on my key ring. Wife carries the Vic Rambler on hers.
 
jc57 said:
Vic Alox Mini Champ is currently on my key ring. Wife carries the Vic Rambler on hers.
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The Alox Mini Champ was supposed to be here today but it got routed to the wrong place so it should be here tomorrow.

I just hope it's not too fat. :)
 
For a really true keychain knife, I still think it's hard to beat the little Vic classic. Small, weighs almost nothing on the keyring, still gives you a nice thin sharp blade, scissors, screw driver that deals with small phillips screws, and tweezers and toothpick. I've been using the heck out of the Leatherman Micra, and it's a great tool. But the classic still has it's good points.
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But…the micra is one heck of a wonderful tool!!!!
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bluemetalchurch said:
The Alox Mini Champ was supposed to be here today but it got routed to the wrong place so it should be here tomorrow.

I just hope it's not too fat. :)
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I used to carry the Mini Champ loose in my pocket but added it to the key ring recently. I will probably take it off again. I prefer my key ring to have just the minimum amount of keys required and nothing else.
 
jc57 said:
I used to carry the Mini Champ loose in my pocket but added it to the key ring recently. I will probably take it off again. I prefer my key ring to have just the minimum amount of keys required and nothing else.
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I'm the same. I may or may not carry it on the keychain.
 
I've had a letterman style on my keys for a few years, I hardly ever use it unless I'm cutting my nails. But it's great when I forget my knife or need scissors.
 
I don't think they make it anymore, but I used to have my basic SAK (which was only 1 blade and a can opener) on my key chain.... That is until I had to replace the ignition on the Honda that I used to drive. (It was the only failure out side of basic maintenance the car ever had!!)
 
cbrstar said:
I don't think they make it anymore, but I used to have my basic SAK (which was only 1 blade and a can opener) on my key chain.... That is until I had to replace the ignition on the Honda that I used to drive. (It was the only failure out side of basic maintenance the car ever had!!)
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Do you mean the Bantam?
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cbrstar said:
I don't think they make it anymore, but I used to have my basic SAK (which was only 1 blade and a can opener) on my key chain.... That is until I had to replace the ignition on the Honda that I used to drive. (It was the only failure out side of basic maintenance the car ever had!!)
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Do I understand correctly that your heavy keychain caused the ignition switch to fail? If so, you would be the third person with first hand experience I have had direct contact with in my life. Many decades ago (almost a half century :eek:) in mechanics training, we were taught that heavy keychains can cause this kind of failure. Recently, though, I came across some chatter about how keychain weight was not such a problem (provided you don't hang a bowling ball on it :D). This got me to ask two of the best mechanics I know, each with decades of experience, how many times this has come up in their careers. One of them said twice, the other, never.
Personally, I just don't like big keychains, so I keep it to keys and a few merchant tags, car keys on a separate ring, and carry the rest (Micra, minilight) in my 5th pocket.
 
znapschatz said:
Do I understand correctly that your heavy keychain caused the ignition switch to fail? If so, you would be the third person with first hand experience I have had direct contact with in my life. Many decades ago (almost a half century :eek:) in mechanics training, we were taught that heavy keychains can cause this kind of failure. Recently, though, I came across some chatter about how keychain weight was not such a problem (provided you don't hang a bowling ball on it :D). This got me to ask two of the best mechanics I know, each with decades of experience, how many times this has come up in their careers. One of them said twice, the other, never.
Personally, I just don't like big keychains, so I keep it to keys and a few merchant tags, car keys on a separate ring, and carry the rest (Micra, minilight) in my 5th pocket.
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It's happened both to me and to my mother, in 1990s vintage Nissan and Ford respectively. So my current setup puts 2 keys (ignition and door as I was too cheap to rekey the doors and trunk after my ignition switch failed) with one of those "remove before flight" tags. I reattach them to the main car keychain when before leaving the car.
 
znapschatz said:
Do I understand correctly that your heavy keychain caused the ignition switch to fail? If so, you would be the third person with first hand experience I have had direct contact with in my life. Many decades ago (almost a half century :eek:) in mechanics training, we were taught that heavy keychains can cause this kind of failure. Recently, though, I came across some chatter about how keychain weight was not such a problem (provided you don't hang a bowling ball on it :D). This got me to ask two of the best mechanics I know, each with decades of experience, how many times this has come up in their careers. One of them said twice, the other, never.
Personally, I just don't like big keychains, so I keep it to keys and a few merchant tags, car keys on a separate ring, and carry the rest (Micra, minilight) in my 5th pocket.
Click to expand...

It was an awful experience, as I was fresh out of school and barley making ends meat... With my luck it happened just outside of town, and the weird thing was the key still turned but the car would sputter out after being released. With the tow bill and diagnostics the total bill came to $392.00 which doesn't sound like a lot, but at the time you could still get a full tuneup including timing belts for approx $140.00 from Honda. So the bill stung pretty deep for something you take for granted never failing. (I survied on bread and water for over that month lol) So since I've kept my ignition key separate, especially since now just ordering a second key to my BMW took over two months!

But I don't know if it's an issue with new cars, with how they have the remote that plugs into your dash instead of a key?
 
I have a plain edge VG-10 Spyderco Dragonfly on my keychain. Small enough not to think about it, while large enough to do pretty much anything.
 
The Victorinox Classic SD. Best keychain knife for most. The champ would have been great if it had better tools, but the combination of tools and the chunky size make it a not-so-great knife.
 
cbrstar said:
. ~But I don't know if it's an issue with new cars, with how they have the remote that plugs into your dash instead of a key?
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The heavy key ring causing ignition faults was introduced as contributing cause by some GM service dealers for the ignition switch failures that were in the news.

Easy to point to, if vehicle comes into garage with such a problem and there is a heavy key ring hanging out the switch.
 
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