How to Make a Survival Keychain
Learn how to make a survival keychain. There is no one way to make a survival keychain. What you put on it depends on your personal needs and wants.
Why Make A Survival Keychain?There’s many methods and schools of thought about survival kits. The problem with most survival kits is that they are too big to carry around in everyday life. Even a survival keychain can become too cumbersome if you get carried away and put too much stuff on it.
The reason for making a survival keychain and not a survival kit (or mini-kit) is so that you WILL carry it EVERYWHERE, just in case SHTF (Shit Hits The Fan).
How to Make a Survival KeychainWhen you make a survival keychain, minimalism is the ‘key’, so to speak. There more stuff you put on it, the bulkier it becomes, and the less likely you are to carry it. There’s no use put putting all this stuff on it if you’re not going to carry it.
Ultimately, what you put on your survival keychain is up to you and what you can get your hands on e.g. If you do a lot of air travel, then a knife is not a good idea. If you have big pockets and don’t mind carrying more, than you can put more on it.
Using my survival keychain as an example, it can give you some ideas for what to put on yours when you make a survival keychain.
CompassA compass is an an essential survival tool. Learn how to use it. Watch out because some of the smaller ones are inaccurate.
The compass is a invaluable survival tool
WhistleA small, loud whistle can be used to attract attention for rescue, if attacked on the street and perhaps to scare away animals.
Keyring whistle. Get a loud one without a pea.
Para CordParacord is extremly useful. Repairs, shelter building, fishing, cutting etc. Proper paracord is strong enough to hold a human if you need to climb down it! Inside is 7 strands that can be used for fishing, sewing etc. There’s so many uses and plenty of other people have blogged about them.
This paracord is wrapped around the magnesium stick, which disguses it from the TSA and enables it to be attached to the key-ring.
Magnesium StickWhen struck it creates a spark to make fire. It can be difficult if you’ve never done it before, so learn how to use it before you need to. Fire is extremely useful in a survival situation.
I can’t seem to find where to buy just the magnesium stick by itself, but just buy the normal one and take the stick out, then wrap it with your paracord so it can be attached to your keyring.
Mini FlashlightI currently do not have this on my survival keyring, but only because I lost it recently. Also, everything else on my survival keyring is waterproof, but I havn’t yet come across a small keyring flashlight that is waterproof (although I know they are out there, I think Bear Grylls produces one).
Never the less, a flashlight is pretty handy.
This is not a mini flashlight as recommended, but is waterproof and small enough to carry separately in my pocket.
Flash DriveThat’s right, in a modern world, you can store all your information digitaly and you never have to be without it. It isn’t essential for survival, and possibly useless in a WSHTF (When Shit Hits The Fan) scenario, but extremely useful in everyday life. The one on my survival keychain is waterproof and scratch resistant (by Lacie).
This 16gb zip drive made by Lacie is waterproof and scratch resistant.
Mini Multi-ToolA multi-tool can be extremely handy thing to add when you make a survival keychain, but most of them are too big. An option is to get a Mini-Tool. there are loads to choose from, do your research. They are not as useful as a standard size multi-tool, but in situations where there’s nothing else available it comes in handy.
The one I use is a Swiss Tech Micro.
Mini Multi Tool. The SwissTech Micro
Keychain Lock Pick SetThe last thing I recommend on your survival keyring is a lock pick set. I researched a good one at IdealCreations.net but I do not have it on my keyring. I still use a small set I have had for years, and just keep it in my travel wallet.
Obviously, you need to learn how to pick locks for it to be of any use, which isn’t really that hard but takes some practice.
Getting Your Survival Keychain Through CustomsIf you have any type of blade on your survival keyring it will not get through. I carry a blade seperate and put it under the plane, or if I am just with carry-on, which is quite often, then I just buy a blade first thing in the new place.
Sometimes the magnesium stick can give you problems. If you just put it in your bag, it will often get overlooked. If you put it seperate so it is visible, you are more likely of getting ‘harrased’. The US has the ‘worst’ customs, meaning they are quite strict.
I’ve never had any problems with the minitool because the one I use has no blade.
Nor have I ever been stopped for the lock pick set either, but I don’t have mine as part of my survival keyring.
Well that’s it for this post on how to make your own survival keyring. Ironicaly, I don’t have any keys on it.
What have you got on yours?
The post How to Make a Survival Keychain appeared first on Survive Travel.
