This review is a comparison of the Nite Ize DoohicKey models QuicKey and Clip Key. I’m the type of guy that always has a knife and I feel naked without it. But I have to travel often for work, packing only in a carry on, which leaves me knifeless for a week at a time. Often I find myself with some tough to open packaging, or a loose thread, or a loose screw, dearly missing my swiss army knife. So I started researching alternative tools that the TSA might either allow or overlook, and that brought me to the DoohicKey tools by Nite Ize. I bought the QuicKey first, and have successfully flown with it twice so far. And while I like it very much it requires an accessory clip of some kind if you want to carry it with rental car keys, which are typically steel cabled together. So then I found the Clip Key, which looks like basically the same thing just with a convenient carabiner built in. So I ordered a few of those too. Turns out they are very similar, but not the same. The QuicKey is very well made, looks just like a big key, and seems tailor made to go unnoticed by the TSA. Most of the ground edges are not sharp except for the inner two of the three serrations, and even those aren’t super sharp out of the box. The outermost serration is left dull, and I believe this makes it less likely to accidentally cut it’s way out of a pocket. It has jimping on one side where you can place your finger or thumb for extra force and control, and it is thick enough to be comfortable to do so. The thickness does make it more difficult to get on and off of a keyring however. At 20 grams it is a solid little tool. The Clip Key is also a nice tool, but not nearly as well made. It is a uniform thickness, appears to be stamped out of a sheet, and weighs in at 12 grams. The edges are all chisel ground from one side. This makes all of them a little sharper, and also makes it LOOK like it’s sharper, which is not what you want in a TSA line. All three of the serrations are sharp, and the corners of the screwdriver tip are sharper than the QuicKey too, which makes me think it is more likely to cut it’s way out of a pocket without too much trouble. The chisel grind makes for a passable but poor screwdriver; the QuicKey is better in this respect. It does not have any jimping, and is overall less ergonomic to use. It does not look as much like a key, and hangs crooked on a keyring making it stand out from the other keys. On the plus side, the extra sharpness makes it a better cutting tool, and the carabiner clip works well. It’s also about a third the price of the QuicKey, I’m sure because if it’s cheaper construction. Overall both tools are quite functional; they both open bottles well enough, they both turn either small flathead or phillips screws (the QuicKey does it better), they both cut open boxes, string, and that impossible foil packaging (the Clip Key does it better), and they can both do light prying (the QuicKey does it better). Both of them have a good shot of getting past the TSA (though I think the QuicKey will probably do it better). Owning both though, it’s the QuicKey that has earned a place on my keyring.
