OK in fairness the question with anything in the PSK is a trade off between usability of a given device and the opportunity to carry more of another or something completely different. Sacrificing the convenience of the split rings is certainly not necessary and the kit that Doug has put together is not missing anything so I don't see any need to worry overly much about it. OTOH it remains possible and worthwhile to attempt to examine, modify and improve in all cases.<br><br> In the case of a couple of split rings which could be adequetly substituted by the paracord, the nylon string or the shoelaces (all of which are available with DR's kit) you could be carying a significant amount of additional snare wire. Try coiling up the snare wire to the same dimensions as the two split rings stacked and see how much you have. I would approximate around 10' extra snare wire. You could probably fit 4 times that much in extra fishing line. Or perhaps some nylon twine which has multiple uses. Also the Split Rings are very rigid which makes packing the PSK somewhat more difficult. <br><br>Another consideration is the comfort of using the split rings in the first place. I have found that they are very uncomfortable unless a stick is placed in them to provide a T handle . If I use them in this manner then anything that attaches the saw blade to the sticks is adequate so the nylon twine or the paracord or the shoe lace would be fine. <br><br>Surely if you have more space then it would be nice to bring the handles. But If I had more space (even a little) I would have the pocket chain saw instead. That is what I carry in my butt-pack which is always as close as my car. What I can fit in my psk needs to be as much multi-use and flexible as possible. The split rings do have other uses but as far as I can see the nylon twine can server most of them and be much more flexible in the bargain. The split rings, as handles to the saw, are single use items and in an altoids sized tin they take up quite a bit of room. The comfort of using a bic butane lighter is vastly superior to a sparklite but I can't fit one of them (even the mini version which I carry in my butt pack) in the space a sparklite takes up. The tinder of the sparklite is smoooshed into all of the other unusable spaces which are too wierdly shaped to fit anything useful and therfore take up no room. Sorry if I inflamed anyone with previous posts.