Mas Design Bauhaus Titanium Keychain / Key Carabiner Review
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When a small company by the name of Mas Design set out to re-create the common carabiner, it restricted itself to design a carabiner that would have a distinct and elegant look that is unfamiliar in the world of carabiners, yet still be just as functional as every single one of them. Bauhaus is a series of titanium-made carabiners made using a single piece of EDM machined high-quality grade 5 titanium alloy with a clean and minimalist design influenced by what is known as Bauhaus styling. Mas Design's small and lightweight Bauhaus carabiners were created for the sole purpose of carrying essential items like your keys and/or other small accessories you'd be carrying with you on a daily basis using a keychain. And apparently, these were a huge success when Mas Design used Kickstarter to help fund the Bauhaus project.
When was the last time you've seen a carabiner put into a considerate packaging? It's certainly a first for us. And it only goes to show that Mas Design is treating these are specially made items, which is what these are.
There are as many as five different shapes of carabiners in the Bauhaus line. Why such a saturated selection you ask? We don't know either. But selection is always a good thing, right? Granted there are some strength differences between the model types, and some (the K-Type series) feature an integrated bottle cap opening design, but we think that Mas Design should have spent time finding the optimal carabiner shape and design instead of making so many different ones, which ultimately makes your buying decision all the more confusing. Out of the five carabiner models we were given, we found that the K80 and K811 carabiners were the best out of the series of bottle opening-capable carabiners – while the C11 carabiner provided the best shape for simple everyday keyring attachment use.
Note that the bottle opener has been cleverly and unobtrisuvely intigrated into the K-Type series carabiners. When the gate opens, the bottle opener is revealed and will loge into place when you push the carabiner up against the edge of the bottle cap.
The P99 while the most rigid and robust carabiner out of the bunch, is unnecessarily complicated and over-engineered. We felt like it offered less versatility with its wasteful design. That being said, its industrial-like capability may be of more use to certain people.
And depending on where you're attaching your carabiner to, the various shapes and loop sizes of Mas Design's Bauhaus carabiners let you pick the right shape for the right task. The narrow design of the C11 and K11 fits snugly around a jeans belt loop, while the wider keyhole-shaped design of the K50 enables it to fit around thicker and wider bag handles, straps and other large diameters.
Needless to say, the most impressiveve thing about these carabiners is that they’re all made from a single piece of titanium. Unlike most carabiners which have two or more different pieces that make them work, these Mas Design Bauhaus carabiners each have a seamless unibody construction. And because they’re made using a titanium metal and nothing else, they’re all very lightweight yet still amazingly durable. But don’t go mountain climbing using these because you’ll end up…dead. While they are indeed carabiners, you can not use any of these to replace a standard-sized mountain climbing-approved carabiner. They’re not designed to be used to secure anything other than your keys and other small sized keychain items.
These Bauhaus titanium keychain carabiners are, well just that, carabiners. There really isn’t anything more to it than that. If you’ve ever thought about clipping your set of keys to your pants or bag, then these are a very cool way to go about doing just that. And let’s not forget the added bonus of having the ability to open up a cold bottle of your favorite alcoholic or nonalcoholic beverage using a single piece of keychain hooking awesomeness.
You might be wondering what’s so great about an exterior form of carry. The advantage of clipping your set of keys to your belt loop means that you won’t have to worry about your keys damaging your smartphone while also allowing people without pockets or very skinny jeans to comfortably carry their valuable keychain of goodies without needing a pocket. And to some, it's a way of life.
These are hands down the most beautifully designed and made carabiners I’ve ever seen and held. I love the use of titanium, it’s such a great material that has this very metallic gray gun metal property to its raw natural color. The stone tumble/wash finish on the titanium adds a special and unique textured look to the metal surface which I think we can all agree looks brilliant. It has that very natural metallic worn-out, rough yet very refined look without it actually having a single scratch or ding on the surface. It looks rough and gritty up close, but the surface is actually extremely smooth to the touch and highly scratch-resilient. I'm absolutely in love with this type of industrial finish.
The quality of machining and finishing on every one of these carabiners is simply immaculate thanks to the expensive EDM machining technology (Electric Discharge Machining) and methodically thought-out design.
You're not only limited to clipping your keys on your person. You can find all kinds of useful use case scenarios for these small and compact carabiners like clipping the end of a utility knife sheath to your belt or gear bag. That's just one small example.
Prices start at $36 for the most basic titanium Bauhaus carabiner by Mas Design, and we think it's totally worth getting. Now the hard part is choosing which one to get. And while you're at it, we would also highly recommend that you upgrade your ordinary key ring for the Exotac FreeKey seen here, it's truly revolutionary and the easiest to open key ring every made.
