Different take on a retention strap

[Gary W. Graley]

Hi folks, a friend sent me his Bradford USA Guardian 4 fixed blade to take a look at for bit, really nice knife too, well made and very grippy handle scales.

You can see my review of the knife via this link

But the leather sheath it comes with, not made by Bradford USA, didn't really retain the knife as secure as I would like to see, a very very light tug on the handle and the knife would fall free from the sheath. Inside is a wrap around piece of plastic to help prevent you from cutting through the main body of the sheath. Starts about where the blade would be in the sheath, nice idea for that.

SO, not wanting to return this back to my friend in a condition that to me I would deem a possible hazard if he ever took a tumble while on a hike, I set about to figure out a way to provide some retention without making a new sheath, you guys know I'm not a fixed blade sheath kinda guy

After some thought, yes it did hurt just a little, I came up with an idea so that it would hold the knife and yet you'd be able to remove and return without much trouble or possible cutting of the strap, also you can do that one handed as well.

The sheath is a fold over design, so along the spine of the sheath where it folds, there is a gap and the knife doesn't make contact there.

I took a strip of leather and put it through the belt loop so it would come out on the edge side of the sheath.

Then that piece of leather would wrap around back over the outside of the sheath and around the spine to snap onto a snap fitting I put in on the spine of the sheath.

Since the leather is behind the belt loop, that thickness of the belt loop helps to keep the strap from being in the way of the knife, sort of opens the strap up when it's unsnapped and it's long enough that you can easily use your pinky to act as a diverter to keep it even further away from the edge of the blade.

You're not dealing with two ends of as retaining strap, just one strap that wraps tightly around and is held in place at the spine of the sheath, which keeps the strap from being accidentally undone as you are walking through the brush, bushes, trees and what not on your travels.

Here are some photos showing the new retention strap, with this on there, you could 'safely' toss that sheath/knife to someone without worry that the knife might come free, not a recommended action mind you, but ya could if ya had to.

Overall shot on the belt, you can see how the strap's snap folds around to the spine edge of the sheath

Now on the sheath's belt loop, I did have to trim their leather to match the curve of the knife's handle so the strap would be pulled tight against the knife handle and not have a gap from the belt loop. It didn't have to remove much to make that happen, but that is important to do.

For the snap that is fastened to the sheath's spine, I took and ground down two sides of it so it would fit in that curve better and of course glued down a thin layer of leather over that.

While this was a FIX for an existing sheath, I think it might also be a good way to intentionally make a retention strap if you needed something like that. IF they had brought the leather up higher on the handle, I think it would have been good enough with out a strap, but as she was, it needed something to help keep my friend safe

Hope that sparks some ideas in you guys/gals heads out there in the leather world,
G2

 

[Icewind]

Nicely done Gary, but I ask myself here isn´t there the risk cuttin the strap by pulling the knife like the problem with the original Ontario Afghan Bush sheath? There are a lot who had to secur the strap with an elastic cord to prevent cutting the strap off.

 

[Gary W. Graley]

With any strap you can have the risk of cutting it if you are not careful, some more easily than others. It took me a while to come up with this design and this way you don't really have much of a problem with that, for several reasons;

The strap starts out behind a layer of leather, the belt loop, so that thickness of leather helps or wants to keep the strap back and out of the way.

The length of this strap is longer as it has to go out and around to the spine of the sheath.

The snap fitting at the end of the longer strap, although not that heavy, does add weight that will also help keep that strap outwards.

Of course if you are not careful you could cut it but with the above 'features' it reduces that chance by a lot.

I should have given a shot of the strap open, would have helped

Thanks sir!
G2

 

[harronek]

Gary , how did you stitch or attach the strap under the belt loop ?

Ken

 

[Gary W. Graley]

With a little difficulty

I placed several layers of leather between the belt loop so that I could get my holes through in order to stitch the strap in place.

I marked where the strap was on the back of the first part of the belt loop, roughed up the surface and glued that in place, but I would never rely on just glue for much of anything, except for the thin layer of leather that covered the snap inside the sheath.

Then I used my stitching forks to get the holes into the sheath, having to pull back the front of the sheath in order to gain access to the inside area, and made a vertical set of holes there and one near the other side of the belt loop. Keeping them vertical will help keep the full strength of the belt loop too, as some might have ran a horizontal line across, but often that ends up being a spot that tears apart.

THEN, carefully stitching from the back side to the front, making sure the needle didn't poke through the sheath or my fingers

G2

 

[harronek]

With a little difficulty

I placed several layers of leather between the belt loop so that I could get my holes through in order to stitch the strap in place.

I marked where the strap was on the back of the first part of the belt loop, roughed up the surface and glued that in place, but I would never rely on just glue for much of anything, except for the thin layer of leather that covered the snap inside the sheath.

Then I used my stitching forks to get the holes into the sheath, having to pull back the front of the sheath in order to gain access to the inside area, and made a vertical set of holes there and one near the other side of the belt loop. Keeping them vertical will help keep the full strength of the belt loop too, as some might have ran a horizontal line across, but often that ends up being a spot that tears apart.

THEN, carefully stitching from the back side to the front, making sure the needle didn't poke through the sheath or my fingers

G2

OK , that makes sense .
I was trying to work out how you did it and wasn't coming up with many ideas

Ken

 

[Gary W. Graley]

Thanks Ken, in that last photo that shows the snap, if you look to the inside of the strap, you can just make out the beveled edge of where the strap is glued and sewn down.

G2