It’s Just Cool: Leatherman Keyman Mods
By Dan Kitchen
The online community at EDC Forums focuses on the everyday carry lifestyle/obsession, which is basically an interest in items that you always have on you: knives, tools, keys, packs, etc. A small portion of the members take the interest further by customizing tools for specific individual needs, which is pretty cool — one of the coolest is the Keyman mod.
The mod consists of a stripped-down Leatherman with filed-down keys substituted for the tools. EDC Forum member shadeone created the compact, jingle-free, key-carrying solution shown above. You can check out more picks of this and other mods via the links below.
Shadeone’s Post [EDC Forums]
EDC Forums [Official Site]
April 18th, 2008 at 12:48 pm
Okay, that IS freakin’ cool and it’s one of those “why wouldn’t I have ever thought to do that?” kinda things. Pure genius.
April 18th, 2008 at 4:22 pm
that is pretty awesome. One of my coworkers had an aborted project that was somewhat similar. But he was just trying to mix and match multitool blades, not add keys.
April 19th, 2008 at 9:59 am
This is the perfect post 911 mod! Good job… Now I can fly with my Leatherman again.
April 19th, 2008 at 1:58 pm
@bfk: Er, putting keys in a Leatherman isn’t going to magically allow you to fly with knife blades and other sharp tools. I would hope most TSA screeners wouldn’t give you a hard time about the keys, but once you’ve removed the tools from it and put keys in it, it’s not really a true Leatherman any more, either.
cl
April 19th, 2008 at 9:03 pm
First person to fab the handleless key blanks and manufacture the holder gets a million dollars..or more..in royalties.
April 20th, 2008 at 3:43 pm
No royalties to be had — the picture above is sufficient prior art to prevent a patent.
If you removed the knives you could fly with it, but I don’t see much point of a multi-tool w/o a knife of some form. Of course, the Utilikey (http://www.swisstechtools.com/productdetail.aspx?PID=VZ75GDTdP68A) tends to get past security (because, yeah, you could take a plane with a 2″ blade with no good grip), but probably wouldn’t if you moved all your keys to something like this. Ah, the irony…
April 20th, 2008 at 4:09 pm
No royalties to be had — the picture above is sufficient prior art to prevent a patent.
Never underestimate the incompetence of the USPTO.
cl
April 22nd, 2008 at 10:22 am
This is kind of like the keyport (http://www.key-port.com ) except, you know, real. And awesome.
April 23rd, 2008 at 12:12 pm
[...] Posted by Helge Johannessen on April 24, 2008 This could be an interesting way to keep your keys organized, maybe a color code would make them easier to distinguish. Seems as an interesting DIY project on a boring day. [Toolmonger] [...]
April 23rd, 2008 at 5:20 pm
Also seems like a a cool way to carry around a few bump keys.
August 29th, 2009 at 9:54 pm
What next, a rechargeable 9.6V reversible key screwdriver to give key bits a quarter turn left/right?
I like the way the jingle-jangle of my jailer’s ring with its hundred keys lets everyone know Quasimodo is coming.
Hey, you know what I haven’t seen for a while now that I think of it? Those trifold leather key wallets. Had a spine in the middle section with 4 or 5 flip-up key loops.