Jay Fisher - Fine Custom Knives

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"Vindicator" push dagger, obverse side view in CPM154CM powder metal technology tool steel blade, 304 stainless steel bolsters, Afghanistan Lapis Lazuli gemstone handle, hand-carved leather sheath inlaid with Elephant skin
"Vindicator" with Lapis Lazuli Gemstone handle

Accessory: Tactical Knife Sheath Loops, Plates, Straps

“Better to have, and not need, than to need, and not have.”

--Franz Kafka
Writer, 1883-1924



Standard Belt Loops in Anodized High Strength Aluminum mounted to Tactical Sheath:
"Kairos" professional counterterrorism tactical knife, reverse side view. Sheath back showing one location and placement of die-formed anodized aluminum belt loops
More about this Kairos Professional Counterterrorism Knife

Introduction and Description: Belt Loops, Mounts and Sheath Interfacing
Knives are not carried; they are worn.

Since the sheath is the most important part of the knife that has to accompany the person, it's not enough that the sheath exists to protect the knife owner and user. It must be worn in a sturdy, dependable, reliable, and convenient fashion. Throughout time, man has devised many ways to wear his knife sheath. As long as there have been clothes, man has adapted the sheath to his clothing so that his knife may accompany him.

Probably the most common wear item for this is the belt. Worn across the chest or around the waist, the narrow, thin strip of leather, textile, or webbing is history's most repeated support of the knife. Belt material and strengths may have changed over millennia, but the shape and size hasn't changed much.

Adding to the typical belt arrangement is the webbing strap. Webbing may occur anywhere in the ensemble, on the body, clothing, pack, gear, rig, or frame. That's why I've included flat clamping straps that can be mounted to MOLLE gear, any webbing, anywhere the knife may fit on a fixed strap.

On this page, you'll see how I've adapted and created various hardware pieces that allow a wide variety of mounting and wearing options, allowing my clients to position their knife sheath, and thus, their knife, just about anywhere there is a belt or strap. I've made and supply hardware that allows movement or sliding along the web or belt, and hardware that allows flat, rigid clamping, fixing the sheath solidly to the belt or web.

These mounting accessories have been used and proven by hundreds of my tactical knife sheath wearers and users, and have been used in combat, rescue, and counterterrorism fields throughout the world.

What you will see here is simply the web, strap, and belt mounts of the very best tactical knife sheath wearing system made in the world today. What you won't see is folded, thin and weak kydex, paracord lashing, hollow eyelets, strings, cords, or lines. You won't see any plastic mounting of any kind; everything you see that I make to mount and wear knife sheaths to webbing or belts is best tactical knife sheath wearing system made in the world today. What you won't see is folded, thin and weak kydex, paracord lashing, hollow eyelets, strings, cords, or lines. You won't see any plastic mounting of any kind; everything you see that I make to mount and wear knife sheaths to webbing or belts is metal. This is why these critical pieces of hardware will never fail my tactical knife sheath owners.

When you leave this page, you'll have a much different understanding of what real tactical gear looks like, and what professionals need but aren't getting in this field.

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Simple, clean, solid mechanical mounts and fasteners for belt loops:
Typical die-formed anodized aluminum belt loops on tactical combat knife sheath
More about this Celeri Tactical Knife

Standard Belt Loops (Footman's Loops)

Let's start by defining the belt loop. It's a loop, that is, a ring that surrounds the belt. In early luggage and carrier terminology, this was called a "footman's loop," since the footman would be the servant lugging the heavy steamer trunk for the master. The reason they were called "footmen" is that while the master would be riding in the horse or carriage, the footman would be on foot, running beside him. Ahh, the good old days...

The footman's loop or belt loop on a trunk is a formed material, usually metal, that the belt or strap rides in. The loop keeps the belt or strap in place on the trunk, or in this application, on the knife sheath. In adapting the tactical knife sheath to the belt, the mainstay is the loop. In my tactical knife sheaths, a standard loop system has been used and well-appreciated for decades.

The loops I make and use for my tactical sheaths have some distinctive properties and use features:

  • They are made of 5052 H32 high strength corrosion-resistant aluminum alloy. This is a high chromium-magnesium aluminum alloy, used for aircraft fuel tanks, storm shutters, refrigerator liners and panels. I offer professional 1-mil thick anodization (twice the thickness of flashlights and aluminum tools) which imparts a near-ceramic hard surface to the aluminum. Then I usually dye it to match the knife, sheath body, and other components. This is prevalent on my "Shadow Line" for non-reflective camouflage in subdued operations. The anodization also increases the corrosion resistance tremendously, so that dive applications in marine environments are corrosion-free. The anodization also stiffens the aluminum by completely coating the outside with two layers of rigid aluminum oxide.
  • They are die-formed to fit over the belt or strap, and drilled to mount to my sheaths in a standard, regular spacing arrangement of 2.5". This means they can be mounted anywhere the 2.5" hole spacing occurs along the sheath welts..
  • They are mounted with substantial stainless steel fasteners, with through-holes for security. These are Chicago screws or machine screws, bolted through the aluminum welts and kydex layers, secured with a machine thread nut.
  • Currently, I offer three sizes on my kits. They will accommodate belts or straps:
    • Up to 1.5" wide and 0.190" thick (low profile)
    • Up to 1.5" side and 0.250" thick (medium profile)
    • Up to 1.75" wide and 0.250" thick (large profile)
  • Belt loops allow sliding and movement; they are not clamps. A loop set is usually chosen that will give limited movement, without a sloppy fit. This keeps the sheath snug against the body or pack, gear, or mounting area.
  • All surfaces of the loops are rounded, dressed and offer no sharp edges that can cut webbing or leather.
  • All of my newer loops are anodized unless otherwise specified or custom ordered. This imparts a near-ceramic hard surface coat that is extremely corrosion resistant, durable, electrically resistive, and accommodates color dyes (usually black or coyote brown) for matching the rigs and sets. More about my anodizing here.

The annotated photos below are clear and descriptive.

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Please click on thumbnails
Die formed aluminum belt loops
Three Belt Loop Sizes
Jay Fisher's tactical sheath accessories: low profile belt loop
Low Profile Belt Loop
Jay Fisher's tactical sheath accessories: leather belt mount
Low Profile on Leather
Jay Fisher's tactical knife sheath accessories: high profile belt loop
High Profile Loop
Jay Fishe'rs tactical sheath accessory: high profile with double webbing
High Profile with Double Webbing
Jay Fisher's tactical sheath accessory: high profile with rigger's belt
High Profile with Rigger's Belt
Die formed aluminum belt loops
Three belt loop sizes
"Guardian" Push/punch dagger with belt loops on kydex sheath
Low Profile Belt Loops
"Guardian" push/punch dagger with high profile belt loops for 1.5" belts
High Profile Belt Loops

"Arctica" reverse side view in CPM154CM powder metal technology tool steel blade, 304 stainless steel bolsters, Coyote/Black G10 fiberglass/epoxy composite laminate handle, locking kydex, anodized aluminum, stainless steel sheath
Die-formed coyote anodized aluminum belt loops: More about this "Arctica"

Horizontal Belt Loop Plates

Horizontal wear is often desired, and along the belt line is a fairly common requested location. In smaller tactical knife sheaths, this can be done in the front of the body on the belt, to the side of the buckle and facilitates an easy crossdraw, which is reaching with the gripping hand across the body to unsheathe the knife.

Horizontal wear is also often desired behind the back, as the belt line is often in the small of the back, or just below it. There are some issues with horizontal wear and I cover those on my sheath page at this bookmark. Please look that over if you're concerned about trying to resheath a razor-sharp, needle-pointed knife next to your kidneys! You should be concerned about this, and nearly all users who wear my sheaths this way do not resheath their knives while wearing their belt and pants. They go someplace private, and carefully sheath their knife with their pants down, and check and adjust the position of the rig. This is actually very good practice!

The horizontal belt loop plates allow the sheath to be worn inline, horizontally, with the belt or web or strapping. Like the belt loops, they allow sliding along the belt, since they do not clamp onto the belt or web. This allows adjustment while mounted to the belt. In order for belt loops to be mounted to the sheath, they are welded to an adapter plate that has bolt holes for the Chicago screws to secure it to the sheath. The holes vary, the placement varies, the width and arrangement varies, so these are custom plates that will only fit the knife sheath they are designed for.

If you notice in the photos below, there may be several pairs of holes through the plates for mounting. This is to allow the plates to be worn on either side of the sheath, making the entire rig reversible. This means you can wear the horizontal belt loop plate-mounted knife on either side or with edge up or edge down. The only limitations are that the plates cannot be mounted on top of the titanium dog-leg spring of my hybrid tension-lock sheaths, as the plate would interfere with the operation of the spring and release. In this case, they are simply located on the opposite side. There are no placement limitations for the positively locking sheath, versions 1.0 and 2.0.

To mount the plates, the main Chicago screws are removed from the sheath, the hole alignment is checked by holding the plate against the sheath. Since they are in pairs, you can hold the plates in various ways until you see the holes line up, while the belt loops that are welded on the plates align with each other. If there is a problem, it's usually because the arrangement was not set up right, the plates are reversed, upside down, or oriented wrong. Just moving them around and carefully observing where the belt will be located in the loops and the hole alignment will clear that up.

In larger sheaths, the belt loop plates may be mounted straddling a belt loop on a pant, for example. This will stop the sheath from sliding too far in either direction, and is a good way for some extra security.

Most of my newer belt loop plates use the largest high profile loops, as these are the easiest to thread the belt through. The annotated photos below are clear and descriptive.

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Please click on thumbnails
Jay Fisher's tactical knife sheath accessories: Horizontal belt loop plates
Horizontal Belt Loop Plates
Jay Fisher's tactical sheath accessories: belt loop plates mounted
Belt Loop Plates Mounted
Jay Fisher's tactical knife sheaths: Horizontal belt loop plates with webbing
Belt Loop Plates with 1.5" Web
Jay Fisher's horizontal belt loop plates with leather work/service belt
Plates with Leather Service/Work Belt
Horizontal aluminum welded belt loop plates
Horizontal belt loop plates
Horizontal aluminum welded belt loop plates
Horizontal belt loop plate mounting
Horizontal aluminum welded belt loop plates
Belt loop plates with high profile loops

Many tactical sheath wear accessories:
"Arctica" with accessories in locking kydex waterproof sheath, ultimate belt loop extender with sharpener, LIMA, solitaire LED lamp, Magnesium firestarter, alternate belt loop and strap mounts, extra hardware and tools
More about this "Arctica"

Horizontal and Vertical Flat Clamping Straps

There are situations where the sliding around of belt loops is not desired. Some of my military clients requested a rigid mounting to straps, webbing, belts, gear, or PALS (Pouch Attachment Ladder System) of MOLLE gear (Modular Lightweight Load-carrying Equipment). The versatility of the gear, the personal and individual arrangements on the body or rig needs to work with body armor, mission gear, and even the environment that the knife and sheath are worn in. Also, the huge variety of webbing and straps can cause a lot of headaches.

I developed these simple clamping straps to accommodate this. They are flat straps of 5052H32 corrosion-resistant high strength aluminum alloy, often anodized for durability and color matching and camouflage, just like my standard belt loops.

The big difference is that they are flat so when the mounting screws and fasteners are tightened, they squeeze the webbing or belt and firmly grip it. The straps are mounted either vertically, or horizontally, and are stamped with an "H" or a "V" for identification. On larger knives, they may even be numbered for easier placement. They can be mounted with the male or female components of the Chicago screws through the strap, or the owner can use included button-head cap screws or socket head cap screws, if he needs a longer length. This is necessary on very thick, large webbing (see photos below).

The vertical flat clamping straps mount anywhere on the sheath with the 2.5" bolt hole spacing pattern, the same as the die-formed belt loops. They are completely reversible and on larger sheaths may have many mounting positions on either side. This can allow a "trapped" mounting where the web is threaded outside of the sheath rather than between the sheath and the body of the wearer. The only limitations for the vertical flat clamping straps is that they cannot be placed over the dogleg spring of the hybrid tension-locking sheath. There are no limitations for the positively locking sheath, versions 1.0 and 2.0. The neat thing is that for very wide belts (belts that won't fit through the standard 1.5" or 1.75" wide belt loops), the vertical clamping straps will accommodate up to a 2.25" belt or web width. This is a very wide width, rarely seen or used, but the vertical straps will fit!

The horizontal flat clamping straps are matched to each individual sheath; they are custom and are not interchangeable with any other sheath or location on the sheath. This is because hole spacing and width varies from knife to knife, and sheath to sheath. They can be placed on either side, as long as they don't interfere with the dogleg spring of the hybrid tension-lock sheath. They allow rigid mounting in line with the webbing or strap, or a variety of positions in PALS webbing in MOLLE gear. Each strap only fits on one location on the sheath, but will fit either side so they're reversible. The limitation of the horizontal flat clamping straps is that the belt or web must fit between the screws. On smaller knives, the narrow sheath tip may not accommodate wider webbing, but there will be at least two horizontal flat clamping straps that will work on very wide belts in most knives. You can see this in the photo set below, however, most standard belt widths can be used and clamped to the sheath. To line up the holes, hold the strap over the sheath to see where each horizontal strap fits, since it only fits in one place.

The standard Chicago male screw component thread is 3/8" long, so in some thicker belts is too short to engage the Chicago screws. I've included additional button head cap screws and socket head cap screws that are matching and will allow clamping to belts .250" thick and thicker.

The annotated photos below are clear and descriptive.

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Please click on thumbnails
Jay Fisher's tactical knife sheath accessories: flat clamping straps, horizontal and vertical
Horizontal, Vertical Flat Clamp Straps
Jay Fisher's tactical gear: vertical flat clamping straps
Vertical Flat Clamping Straps
Jay Fisher's Vertical flat clamp straps on tactical belt
Vertical straps on tactical web belt
Jay Fisher's tactical knives sheath gear: 2" wide vertical straps mounted to sheath
2" wide web vertical mount
Jay Fisher's tactical knife accessories: horizontal flat clamping straps
Horizontal flat clamp straps on 1.5" web
Jay Fisher's tactical accessories, web size limitation
Web width limitation on horizontal mount
Jay Fisher's tactical knife sheath accessories: flat clamping strap on leather work/service belt
Horizontal clamping on leather service belt
Jay Fisher's tactical knives accessories: leather clamped to sheath horizontally
Sheath rigidly fixed to service belt
Flat clamping straps for tactical knives in anodized high strength aluminum alloy
Dual clamp straps
Flat clamping straps for tactical knives in anodized high strength aluminum alloy
Various clamp strap sizes
Flat clamping straps for tactical knives in anodized high strength aluminum alloy
Clamp straps typical
Flat clamping straps for tactical knives in anodized high strength aluminum alloy
Clamp Straps Low Mount
Flat clamping straps for tactical knives in anodized high strength aluminum alloy
Horizontal Flat Straps 2" Web
Flat clamping straps for tactical knives in anodized high strength aluminum alloy
Horizontal Flat Straps 1.5" Web
Flat clamping straps for tactical knives in anodized high strength aluminum alloy
Horizontal Clamping Straps
Flat clamping straps for tactical knives in anodized high strength aluminum alloy
Vertical Clamp Straps Along Welts
Flat clamping straps for tactical knives in anodized high strength aluminum alloy
Vertical Clamping Straps High Position
Flat clamping straps for tactical knives in anodized high strength aluminum alloy
Flat Clamping Straps on Push Dagger
Flat clamping straps for tactical knives in anodized high strength aluminum alloy
Flat Clamping Straps on Push Dagger

Low profile belt loops on tactical counterterrorism push/punch dagger:
"Guardian" Custom Counterterrorism Push/Punch Dagger, obverse side view in ATS-34 high molybdenum stainless steel blade, 304 stainless steel bolsters, G10 composite handle, hybrid tension-locking sheath in kydex, anodized aluminum, anodized titanium, blackened stainless steel
Die-formed high strength anodized aluminum alloy belt loops: More about this "Guardian" push/punch tactical defense dagger

Stainless Steel Clamp Bars

Included with the kits is a special pair of bars. They are milled and dressed 304 stainless steel, typically blackened or oxide straw brown color to match the kits. They are specifically made for the UBLX or LIMA or Sternum Harness mounts, but since they have the same 2.5" bolt hole spacing pattern, they can be substituted as vertical flat clamping straps.

Because they are stainless steel, they are incredibly strong, and can bite down hard enough on webbing and leather to literally scar or press it, distorting it. The aluminum straps won't typically do that, because they have some play and bowing as the screws are tightened.

I didn't intend the stainless bars for clamping on webbing; they are for the LIMA, Sternum Harness, UBLX, and EXBLX accessories. I just wanted it clear that they, also can be used as a high-strength vertical clamping strap.

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Blackened stainless steel milled clamping bars of 304 SS
Stainless steel vertical bars
Blackened stainless steel milled clamping bars of 304 SS
Mounting stainless steel bars

Stainless steel milled and blackened flat mounting bars for sternum harness
Mounting the Sternum Harness with Stainless Steel mount bars

Care and Use

The aluminum flat clamping straps are .190" thick. They are not extremely thick, and can be bent if they are over-tightened. It takes surprisingly little screw pressure to secure these, please don't crank down hard on them like they are the head bolts on an engine. They don't need it; because they are flat finished and anodized, they grip webbing and leather belts and straps very well.

The horizontal belt loops can be over-tightened, also, and when the web is between the welts, against the kydex, the pressure from over-tightening can distort the kydex sheath face or back, and interfere with the play of the knife in the sheath. So, again, just tighten them snug, and don't force the screws.

Like all of the accessories, start the stainless steel machine screws gently and by hand. If they are cross-threaded or difficult to start, take them apart, clean them, and try again. If you force 304 stainless steel into a thread, it will become hopelessly bound and ruined, so be carful when setting up your rig.

There is zero care for the anodized aluminum, or the stainless steel. Rinse off with clean water, and reassemble if soiled. Easy. 

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Vertical flat clamping straps on tactical combat, rescue knife securing to webbing strap 2" wide
Securing to 2" wide webbing example with vertical flat clamping straps on this "Galatea"



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