Building the Display Wall
Interestingly enough, the #1 question I get asked on the various social media channels isn’t about a knife or a flashlight or even some cool gadget that hasn’t yet been released… it’s actually “Hey, where did you get those shelves?” or something having to do with my gear displays.
So, rather than repeatedly digging through my purchase history to find the exact item, I decided to put together this page to highlight some of the display items I currently use or have used in the past to help others build out their own gear display.
The Current Setup
By far, the most popular item in my entire collection is these magnetic tool bars that I use to display my Olight collection. These allow me to attach lights to both the top and bottom (assuming it has a magnetic tail cap), or I can use the steel pocket clip for most lights to attach directly to the front. They accommodate a variety of sizes and are very strong.
Note: These come in both a Black Powder Coat and a Nickel Plate finish. I purchased the Black Powder Coat first but it didn’t have the magnetic pull that I was wanting. I read some reviews and then bought the Nickel Plate and have had zero issues since.
Another Item that grabs a lot of attention are these galvanized steel Wall Control pegboard panels. They measure 16” x 32” so you can easily align them with the studs in your wall and accept both standard pegboard pegs and Wall Control’s patented slottted pegboard hooks, brackets and shelves. I used a mixture of both to make my displays come to life. Another plus is because these are made of galvanized steel, they work for your magnetic lights as well such as the Oclip, Obulb and Swivel from Olight.
I struggled to find a way to display my Oknife collection until I stumbled across these 1/8” metal J-hooks. They are small enough to tuck behind the pocket clip of most knives and wide enough for the bulk of the knife weight to sit in the hook of the J shape. I’m still not a fan of the metal rubbing up against my knife finishes, but if you’re careful putting the knife in and taking it out, you should be fine. These are also a little too small for the pegboard panels so they hang loosely when there is nothing attached so keep that in mind. In my display, I combine two hooks to one blade which gives me stability to prevent left/right sway and they stay in place quite well.
For a more flexible attachment point, I went with these 1/4” plastic J-hooks and L-hooks. These are great for a variety of items that hang but I found that the J-Hooks especially, give me more versatility as the “J” is a bit flexible and can accommodate items slightly wider than the hook itself. I used two of these placed on the same level to hang my OPen collection. When you alternate spacing, they work well not only to hold the pen in place, but the next row up serves as a make-shift “lock” if you will for the item below it. I’m convinced after getting these all in place, the OPen display would survive an earthquake.
As for the L-Hook, They are perfect for items that need to hang and I found their best use for displaying my keychain light collection.
These Accessory Hangers came in clutch when I needed something to display my smaller lights. Beforehand, I had my AA and AAA lights attached using the steel clip to the front of the magnetic tool bars which worked for a while. But as my collection grew, I experimented with makeup holders, pen holders and other items until I found these simple, yet awesome, chunks of metal. Designed to work with the slots in the Wall Control, these are actually intended to allow you hang other accessories such as shelves, cup holders and more. Instead, I liked that they were low-profile and gave me just enough space to actually use the pocket clip on my lights to hold themselves in place. They measure 14” wide so you can get quite a few lights on one piece and with my 32 inch panels, I was able to get two of them side-by-side. This was probably my favorite find for displaying the smaller lights and I plan to get more as my collection grows.
OTHER ITEMS I’VE USED
Don’t let the name fool you, these Makeup Organizers will hold a lot more than just your wife’s eye shadow and lipstick. I bought them originally to serve as an upgrade for my pen collection since I outgrew the previous display (see below), but they quickly became a favorite and I’ve used them to hold my i3T and i5T lights, my OPen and OPen minis and now that I have a few spares, I see them holding the new Diffuse line and perhaps some other EDC gear. Each holds 24 of whatever you cram into it for a compact and organized display.
If you’re on a budget or just need to display a few items, these plastic pen holders are perfect. Each fits up to 6 items and they come in a 4 pack that allow you to display vertically or horizontally, whichever you prefer. They worked well for my OPen collection as well as the i3T Plus and i5T Plus lights before I upgraded to makeup holders (above).
An item that gave my previous wall display a 3D effect and brought items out further from the wall was these Rustic Floating Wooden Shelves. I used them primarily for items that were non-magnetic or too large to fit on the magnetic tool bars. Maximum weight will vary based on the way you mount it, but I used drywall anchors and they held fine for my OLantern collection and some of the larger lights. In hindsight, I should have made sure these were attached to a stud as over time, the shelves did tend to sag a bit, but that was user error and not a product defect. I plan to incorporate these into my new display, but I haven’t figured out just where to put them yet.
Back in the early days of my EDC collection building, I used the tried and true molle system to display my gear. It sat on a wall next to the bed so I could easily mix and match the current day’s EDC. I used a combination of One Tigris products to hold knives, flashlights, pens and patches.
The One Tigris Molle Gear Panel (right) was perfect for holding all of my knives and the One Tigris Patch Holder (left) had a variety of attachment points on the front side shown here with pockets for hanks or wallets and a few molle points for clipping gear. On the reverse side it is a full velcro loop panel for all of your morale patches.
I also used an Assortment of Molle Attachments to make the display work for me.