5 Surprising Uses For The Keyring On Your Swiss Army Knife

In its early days, the Swiss Army Knife's keyring was meant to connect the multi-tool with your keys, which most people always have on-hand when they're out and about. In fact, there was a time in history wherein we had a physical key for everything like your home, your car, your workplace, and so on. However, these days, the clinking in your pocket is becoming less and less common with the rise of keyless entry technology.

In the past, we've discussed how many manufacturers are making vehicles without keys. Sometimes now, it can be a card, a fingerprint, your phone, or a series of numbers pressed into a keypad  that power your car. But, what does that mean for the keyring on your Swiss Army Knife for? Surprisingly, there are still a lot of uses.

In general, key chains are designed to keep your Swiss Army Knife where you can see it. Typically, they can be used to attach your multi-tool to your everyday bag or lanyard, which prevents it from getting lost. However, here are some other useful (and maybe even unexpected) ways the key rings in your trusty old multi-tool can work outside of you car keys.

Have you ever gone on a holiday and struggled to close a bag that is bursting from all your shopping? Or, did you recently buy a Milwaukee Packout backpack without reading our roundup, where we break down why a lot of buyers raised concerns about its overall durability. If you have experienced not some kind of bag-related mishap, like when you try to force it to close and end up with a broken zipper. While at home you can head to the nearest craft or fabric store to find a zipper tab replacement, you may not have enough time to do this before a flight home elsewhere. Thankfully, your Swiss Army Knife keyring loop can be a perfect temporary solution.

To quickly repair your broken bag's zipper pull tab, remove your keyring from your Swiss Army Knife. Next, simply replace the zipper pull tab that came off by attaching it the same way you would a normal key. Afterward, you can easily open and close your bag's zipper temporarily until you can get it professionally replaced, so it doesn't happen again. Apart from bags, this trick can also work on any kind of zipper, like those on clothing, storage cases, or camping gear, like tents or sleeping bags.

Not everyone owns or knows how to use a wire stripper. It's a pretty specialized tool that most people don't use regularly. So, if you only need to strip a wire once in a blue moon, the keyring hole in your Swiss Army Knife may be more than enough for your needs. For this to work, you first need to use the blade on your multi-tool to carefully slide the cover of the wire, just make sure not to cut through the whole wire. Next, you can remove the keyring itself and place it to the side, so the eyelet is not obstructed. Lastly, use the keyring hole to slide the wire through and begin stripping it. But of course, should you find yourself doing this regularly, you might want to get a proper wire stripper to avoid a lot of complications.

After you've stripped the wire, you can even proceed to use the keyring hole to help manipulate the wire itself into your desired shape. However, it's important to note that depending on the type of wire you're working on, there might be other tools better suited to bending it. If you don't know what to choose, SlashGear has a nice little guide on wire bending tools for every kind that you might encounter.

While not as common as the other types of Swiss Army knife tools, there are a couple of SAK models that have built-in LED lights, such as the Swiss Card Lite, Midnite Manager, and Signature Lite. Typically, they use white lights that are powered by replaceable batteries. Although they may not be incredibly powerful, they can be useful for minor things, like finding things in your bag at night or reading a book in the dark. With the key ring, you can also anchor your LED light and position it better.

It's not the best option, and if you just want something small, you can also buy a mini flashlight tool separately and attach it to the keyring instead. Alternatively, should you not have a flashlight on hand, the humble keyring can also be used to help light candles in deep containers. To do this, you can sandwich the match and any flat tool in your SAK in between the keyring loops. With this, you'll be able to extend the match to a comfortable distance. This is also a neat trick if you're not comfortable with fire and want to avoid holding a match directly when you're lighting it.

If you ever find yourself stranded at sea, on a deserted island, or even just floating on a boat with your friends without fishing gear, you may encounter the need or desire to make a fishing hook from scratch. In theory, any metal that can be manipulated into something that can hold bait can be a fishing hook, including nails, can openers tabs, or sewing needles. 

Knowing this, the keyring itself can be spread out and used as the main material for a fishing hook in a jiffy. Plus, you probably aren't going around carrying pliers in your bag all the time, so the SAK eyelet can be a useful way to get any piece of metal into the right shape. One reason that doing this is incredibly convenient is because you already know that it's going to be able to fit perfectly through the Swiss Army Knife.

We've mentioned before how you can actually use the Swiss Army Knife's toothpick as a needle in a moment of crisis. It's definitely not the most elegant way to do it, since you have to essentially burn a hole through the toothpick for it to work. Plus, it's not exactly ideal if you're trying to fix something a little smaller or more precise, like clothes. If you want to give this technique a go, YouTuber Jony Fire makes a step-by-step tutorial, wherein they first stretch out the keyring and use the keyring eyelet to straighten it. Next, they grind one end of the straightened pin with their Swiss Army Knife nail file. Then, they create rides on the other end, which can help keep strings or thread in place. But of course, it's not going to be as effective as a regular needle, wherein there is an eye specifically to keep thread from moving around.

Speaking of clothing repair tools, if you own a Swiss Army Knife that doesn't have a slot for a pin, you can easily loop a safety pin on your keyring so you always have one on-hand. Apart from being able to keep clothes from falling after losing a button or two, safety pins can also be good tools for first aid, opening things like sim card slots and cleaning tight corners. And of course, you can use the key ring to hold a ton of other useful emergency items, like tinder capsules or compasses.