I have a SAK Classic on my key ring. Fairly unobtrusive but I've used everything in it.

I too carry a Classic on my keyring, now in two variations, since those kindly folks at Victorinox make different variations. I carry at the moment in urban situations one that sports a very useful ball point pen. I believe there is also a Classic that sports a small LED light.

In the field, I carry the classic Classic with the ever popular tweezers and toothpick. I really like their tweezers - great for the occasional cactus spine.

I would take a look at the Gerber STL 2.0 (Doug did a mini review from one of his Shot Show reviews - http://www.equipped.org/shot_show_2007_knives4.htm).

I have one that I orginally had in my PSP, but it found a way to my key chain till I had to fly out for a business trip. Then I quickly lost it after that lost it.

I found that its thin enough that it hides on the key chain unlike the SAK Classic which I find its a tad on the thick side.

The subcom is way too fat to be a keychain knife, try the keycom instead, very sturdy little thing and cheap too.

I was given a Classic and tried it on a key chain; the blade would
occasionally open, in my pocket. It really was not very useful
any way. It is also very fragile.

Here is close to what I use know.

http://www.swissarmy.com/MultiTools/Pages/Product.aspx?category=doityourself&product=53133&

I carry one that looks like above, however mine does not
have the tooth pick or tweezers. I wish I had these, also.
Mine is 1/2 inch thick but seems to lay flat in my pocket.
I occasionally use everything, except the file, which is
embedded on the small fake blade. Handle: red translucent.


I have used much bigger SAKs on my key chain, but this is a
good compromise.

In my opinion the Victorinox Rambler can't be beat.
http://www.victorinox.com/product/1/100/1001/1109/0.6363

It's short, with two layers. You get both blade and scissors, both flat and Philips screwdrivers, bottle opener, nail file, tweezers and toothpick. For me it covers all the essentials, and doesn't have anything I don't use, so it has the best size-to-utility.

The scissors are small but good for cutting nails - better than the larger Leatherman scissors for that. The Philips screwdriver is also small, but again often fits better for small screws than a larger one. I carry a Leatherman Juice, but I still use the Vic Rambler.

I second thet Vic. rambler for keychain carry. If you are willing to carry something a bit bigger, the new leatherman squirt PS 4 is very good.

It's tough to beat the little swiss army knives when it comes to a keychain knife. They're pretty much a perfect combo of size to features, and they're unobtrusive enough that you can take them just about anywhere.

My favorites are the Swiss Lite (basically a classic keychain swiss army knife that has the toothpick switched for a little flashlight) and the Midnight Manager, which is a rambler with a flashlight and pen instead of tweezers and toothpick.


Leatherman's Squirt series is also really good, with the P4 being my favorite.

Another neat little keychain knife is the Buck Metro LED. Locking blade combined with a small flashlight. This is one of my favorites to give as a gift.

It's also worth noting that Doug Ritter, along with CRKT, has a small fixed blade that one could put on a keyring. The RSK Mk5. It's bigger than your average keychain tool/knife, but it's also capable of taking much more abuse.

The RSK MK5 fits a niche for me, thanks.

does anyone know where you can buy the same style of clip that is on the streamlight nano? I would be more willing to go back to a swiss army classic if I could have that sort of quick release.

I got the spyderco knife today, its a nice little knife that would also benefit from a keychain clip of the type above.

I use the streamlight nano as my keychain-carry flashlight and I really like the quick-release clip it uses. I'm betting its an off-the-shelf part from somewhere.