Bruner’s Pictorial Keychain History (and the never ending quest for perfection)

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My keychain has undergone significant changes over the years, especially since discovering EDC Forums.

I thought it would be fun to post pictures of my keychain as it evolved to what I now conseder “perfection”. Well, perfection for me, at least, probably not perfection for everyone…

I really wish I had pictures dating back to when I was 16 (now 35), when I first had a car and a real reason to carry a keychain. I know I went though lots of changes and upgrades back then too, but I can’t remember the details now… One thing that I do remember is that an SAK Classic has always been part of my setup. To me, it’s the perfect keychain knife.

Here’s the earliest photo I have on imageshack.com dated 2005-12-16.
From carabiner, clockwise. Cheap aluminum carabiner (not rated), truck key, wife’s car key, house key, pill fob, SAK Classic, ARC original.

Next photo is dated 2006-03-13, showing my general EDC at that time.
The only thing that changed from the previous picture was the flashlight. I went from an ARC original to an advancedmart.com CR2 LED light. I like that light alot, but it was much thicker and heavier than the ARC Original.

Next photo is dated 2006-04-25.
Showing the same setup as before, but with an added stainless steel Inka pen. Love that Inka pen and carry it on my keychain to this day. At this point, I removed my wife’s car key, as I did not need it that often.

Next photo is dated 2006-04-29.
Added a Boy Scouts of America (BSA) flint steel. That BSA flint steel worked great. Even made posted a video about it HERE.

Next photo is dated 2006-06-27.
Added a SouthOrd folding lockpick and reverted back to my ARC Original. Also added a stretchie hair band to assist in making the keychain more silent.

Next photo is dated 2006-07-09.
Came up with a clever idea for a keychain silencer. Also, switched out my SouthOrd folding lockpick for a Southern Specialties folding lockpick. That keychain silencer idea was pretty neat, but I only used it for a shot while. I made a post about how it was made HERE.

Next photo is dated 2006-10-27.
In this version, I was exploring the idea of having a survival keychain. From carabiner clockwise, truck key, house key, spy capsule (containing mini compass and other items I can’t remember), SAK Classic, ARC AAA Original, Southern Specialties lockpick, Inka pen, BSA flint steel, aluminum whistle and paracord lanyard with cord lock. It proved a bit much to carry.

Next photo is dated 2006-11-01.
Showing my EDC at the time, you can see that my keychain has gone out of “survival mode” and back to something more managable to carry. From caribinier clockwise, Zebra PenPod pen, ToolLogic magnetic LED flashlight, SAK Classic, house key, truck key.

Next photo is dated 2006-11-04.
Only change from last photo was to add a SanDisk Cruzer Micro 256MB USB thumb drive. I found it very useful for work. It also has a place on the side to write your name and phone number. Along with that information, I put a readme.txt file on it with more contact information in hopes that if I lost my keys, a good samaritan might return them to me.

Next photos are dated 2006-11-18.
Back to survival mode! Had to give it one more try and modified a larger carabiner in an attempt to make carrying more and more stuff more feasible. This was only actually a concept. I never carried it a single day, but it worked pretty good. Just too darn much stuff and too darn noisey.
   

Next photo is dated 2006-12-21.
Dropped the Zebra PenPod infavor of the Inka pan, dropped the ToolLogic Magnetic LED light in favor of the ARC AAA Original and started carrying my Souther Specialties folding lockpick again.

Next photo is dated 2007-04-06.
Here I dropped carrying the Southern Specialties folding lockpick and switched out my old cheap aluminum caribinier for a Berkely Point Fixed Bail Titaniam Snap Shackle. I loved that snap shackle, it was the 2-1/8″ long model, which at the time I though was perfect, but proved a bit too small. I did a pretty thorough review of it HERE.

Next photos are dated 2007-06-08.
Replaced my ARC AAA Original with a LiteFlux LF2. Great light and currently (at time of this posting) the most programable AAA Cree LED keychain light available, not that expensive either. It comes with a difuser head too (more about that in my final photos). Luigi did a great review of it HERE.
  

Next photo is dated 2007-06-14.
For a very, very short period of time I replaced my SanDisk Cruzer Micro USB thumbdrive with a a Staples USB thumb drive (same storage capacity of 256MB). I really liked it’s design, but it was made of metal and made a racket when bouncing off of everything else on my keychain. I soon switched back to the SanDisk, which has a rubber body and made much less noise.

Next photos dated 2007-06-26.
Remember in one of my previous photos about adding the LiteFlux LF2 keychain light that I mentioned it came with a diffuser cap? Well, that diffuser cap was an ideal candidate for a pill fob / spy capsule. I had a small aluminum cap machined so that I could carry it on my keychain as a pill fob. Then I would have the option to use it as a diffuser cap on the flashlight, should the need ever arise. I posted the plans for the cap in the “do-it-youself” thread HERE, if you are interested. Also, a major improvement to the keychain was replaceing my small 2-1/8″ Berkely Point Titanium Fixed Bail Snap Shackle with the larger Berkely Point 2-7/8″ Titanium Fixed Bail Snap Shackle. So, to conclude, from snap shackle clockwise, SanDisk Cruzer Micro 256MB USB thumb drive, house key, camper key, shed key, truck key, SAK Classic, Inka pen, LiteFlux LFT flashlight and LiteFlux LF2 diffuser cap with custom made aluminum cap for use as a pill fob.
 

Next photo dated 2008-02-26. From this point forward, new as of 04-02-08
I had just gotten a Photon Proton flashlight and was pocket carrying it clipped to my left front pocket. So, I decided that I no longer needed to carry a light on my keychain. I removed my beloved LiteFlux LF2 along with my beloved LiteFlux LF2 diffuser cap/spy capsule and added back the BSA sparklite and a paracord fob with a glow in the dark tab on it.

Next photos dated 2008-03-14.
Back to something familiar with some improvements. I got tired of carrying the Photon Proton and wanted to add a light back to my keychain. Of course, it would have to be my beloved LiteFlux LF2 along with it’s sidekick, the LiteFlux LF2 diffuser cap/spy capsule. In the last keychain phase I had added a GID paracord fob. I like the idea of having at least one GID element on my keychain so that I could find it in the dark. The paracord fob turned out to get tangled up with all the other keys and tools. My solution was to add GID epoxy to the very bottom of the LiteFlux LF2 diffuser cap/spy capsule. Let me tell you, this worked out way better than I thought it would. I only added about 1/10 of an inch of glow epoxy in the bottom and the whole thing glows like a grean lightbulb. Best part is I can still carry pills in it. If you are curious about that GID mod, more details, lots of pics and even a video can be found HERE. Another major change for me was to drop the SAK Classic which has been a mainstay on my keychain as far back as I can remember. Thing is, I wanted a multitool for keychain carry, but could never find one that was the right size and had elements that could replace my SAK. After all, I didn’t want to carry both a keychain knife and a keychain multitool, the bulk just adds up too quickly. I found the answer in a multitool made by Buck called the MiniBuck Tool Model 350. It has everything my SAK Classic has and more, with the except of a toothpick. I did a full review of the MiniBuck Tool Model 350 HERE.
 

Next photos dated 2008-04-01.
Pretty much everything you saw in the last photos, but there are some hard to see MAJOR improvements. Is your keychian noisy? Do you rattle and klink with every step? Well, my keychain was noisy and I finaly did something about it. The solution was simple, but I never looked at “the problem” quite like this before. If you remember, in an earlier photo, I came up with keychain silencer idea detailed HERE. That idea was ok, but not ideal. It required that you put the silencer on and tighten it every time you need it. You would also then have to loosen it and take it off every time you needed to use your keys. My new solution involved clear rubber hose, which is available at your local hardware store for much less than $1 per linear foot. I used rubber hose of two different diameters to cover the Inka pen, the LiteFlux LF2 diffuser cap/spy capsule and the house key. One last change to mention is that I removed my shed key and my camper key. There was really no reason to carry them around all of the time and they also contributed to keychain noise. In the fist photo is the entire keychain. If you find it difficult to see the rubber hose silencers that I incorporated, try looking at the second closeup photo. I even tested it… The other evening, my wife and I took our standard 2-mile walk and with the keychian at my side, there was hardly any noise at all. Laura didn’t quite see the significance of it on the same level as me, but she was happy for me nontheless.

A final thought about my keychain… I have explored many methods of attachment for the keys and tools and trinkets. I keep coming back to simple split rings. My main ring is 1-1/4″ diameter and all of the attachment rings are 1/2″. With some experimentation and moving things around, I was able to get my keychain to lay pretty well in it’s resting position.

That’s it. Hope you enjoy this as much as I have enjoyed putting it together.

Any questions or comments, I will be happy to respond as soon as possible.

Thanks for looking,
Dan

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