Collection: Keys

A hex key looks like the simplest tool in the workshop. Yet it is one of those that damages the most screws, and almost always for the same reason.

The reference in the catalogue

The KS Tools display of 10 sets of 9 hex keys, as a counter stand.

See also our hand tools and our KS Tools products.

Straight end or ball end

The ball end lets you engage the screw up to about twenty-five degrees off axis, which helps in a recessed housing or behind an obstacle.

But contact with the socket is much smaller than with a straight end, and it is the first cause of a rounded socket. Good practice is to approach and spin with the ball end, then tighten or loosen under torque with the straight end.

Metric and imperial do not mix

A 5 mm key fits into a 3/16 inch socket and seems to work. The difference of a few hundredths is enough to round the socket at the first real effort.

Two separate sets, stored separately and labelled, avoid this trap. A mixed set where the two systems get muddled always ends up costing a seized screw.