Customized/Coloured Lan-Cay M9 Bayonets

[Blackmantis]

G'day from down under =)

I just received some M9 bayonets in the mail from Lan Cay. I saw some coloured ones on their website and thought I'd order some since I'm quite fond of them, and could very well use some. I thought I'd post some pictures as the coloured ones struck me as interesting to add to the M9 collection.

Here's my three m9 bayonets

http://i14.photobucket.com/albums/a332/Slik_Power/DSC00129.jpg
Top: Blue Lan-Cay M9 w/ modern grip
Middle: Ontario Knife Co OD M9 Bayonet
Bottom: Orange Coast-guard issue Lan-Cay M9 w/ first generation grip

The ones that caught my eye were the bright-orange Coast-Guard issue M9's, and the deep blue one, so I decided to order some. Here they are out of the scabbards.

http://i14.photobucket.com/albums/a332/Slik_Power/DSC00132.jpg

I always wanted to compare them with the Ontario M9, and I have to say, they certainly look very nice (The Lan-Cay ones), and they seem to feel pretty sturdy. I still am interested in the Orange one, and if the laws weren't like Britain here, I'd probably take this orange beauty out onto the boat with me for fishing (What a gutting knife it would be! Could dive in and take on sharks with it.)

http://i14.photobucket.com/albums/a332/Slik_Power/DSC00133.jpg

Here's the Ontario M9 and Lan-Cay M9 next to each other (mind the Ontario did not have cosmoline on the blade so it marks going in and out of the scabbard very easily.

http://i14.photobucket.com/albums/a332/Slik_Power/DSC00134.jpg
http://i14.photobucket.com/albums/a332/Slik_Power/DSC00135.jpg

The Lan-Cay looks nice, but the pattern on the scabbard (not sure if this has any unique significance other than looks?) seems a little bit cheap, as the diamond-etches are inconsistent in design, shape and size unlike the Ontario scabbard, however it doesn't really matter. The knife itself seems somewhat more... military, I don't know why. It feels bigger in the hand, and the grip pattern is the other way around, it looks a little better to me than the Ontario. The Lan-Cay M9 bayonets also seem to be somewhat more "pointier" than the Ontario.

Other than that, they seem to be great knives. I've never owned a Lan-Cay but I'll be collecting them all, including a tan M11 and black M11, as well as a brand-new Phrobis I snagged from the states for $145 (For some reason that felt a little "too" cheap so I picked it up to see how it is, but it has not arrived yet, will post pictures for clarification of legitimacy when it arrives).

[pwcosol]

A nice selection of M9s. It is interesting the blue one has the black webbing. The first ones had this gaudy bright blue web suspension, which I understand was not received well when the bayonet was shown to Air Force officials. Also that bayonet (color) was never made with the conventional grip, but only with the ergonomic pattern.
As for checkering on the scabbard, Bill Porter mentioned to me the original/prototype P.I. scabbards had a different, finer cut to the grip panel. LanCay decided to make it more coarse for a better grip, so the mold to produce the scabbards had the old checkering recut . This was an economical way to avoid the cost of making a new mold, but also eliminated forever the original mold pattern P.I. scabbards but for those few which were made. Perhaps B.P. can refer or post a photo of them for comparison...

[Blackmantis]

A nice selection of M9s. It is interesting the blue one has the black webbing. The first ones had this gaudy bright blue web suspension, which I understand was not received well when the bayonet was shown to Air Force officials. Also that bayonet (color) was never made with the conventional grip, but only with the ergonomic pattern.
As for checkering on the scabbard, Bill Porter mentioned to me the original/prototype P.I. scabbards had a different, coarser cut to the grip panel. LanCay decided to make it finer, so the mold to produce the scabbards had the old checkering recut . This was an economical way to avoid the cost of making a new mold, but also eliminated forever the original mold pattern P.I. scabbards but for those few which were made. Perhaps B.P. can refer or post a photo of them for comparison...

Ah ok, very informative reply there, thanks for the info =)

Next up I plan to collect a Lan-Cay OD, Black and White M9. Maybe a Tan M11 for everyday use.

[porterkids]

I've never owned a Lan-Cay but I'll be collecting them all,


I don't think you realize what a monumental, and expensive, task that is. If you're talking about one of each color that Lan-Cay makes that's one thing. If you truely mean that you want one of each kind, that could take years and thousands of dollars.

[Blackmantis]

I don't think you realize what a monumental, and expensive, task that is. If you're talking about one of each color that Lan-Cay makes that's one thing. If you truely mean that you want one of each kind, that could take years and thousands of dollars.

My bad :grin:

I meant to post a picture and refer to it, I'll only collect all the ones in the shot below; so far I have two out of eight.

http://img300.imageshack.us/img300/7810/m9shots005.jpg

[pwcosol]

BM: You might want to include a green and/or black Lan-Cay with the Molle web suspension, too. BTW, on the various camouflaged M9s, are the mottled patterns painted onto or actually molded into the plastic? I only have solid colored ones among my examples...

[porterkids]

The camo patterns are painted on.

Not to burst anyone's bubble, but the blue M9 in the top set of photos in this thread is not the same as the one pictured in the group of eight. The original blue M9s as pointed out already had a bright blue webbing. The one first pictured in this thread has black webbing.

[Blackmantis]

The camo patterns are painted on.

Not to burst anyone's bubble, but the blue M9 in the top set of photos in this thread is not the same as the one pictured in the group of eight. The original blue M9s as pointed out already had a bright blue webbing. The one first pictured in this thread has black webbing.

Yeah I noticed that when I examined mine closely. It doesn't bother me much, I think the black looks nice against the blue.

[pwcosol]

I note the same is true for the white (Arctic) pattern as well. I thought Lan-Cay might have exhausted their supply of white and blue webbing to make suspensions, so reverted to black. However, they still make the EOD pouches in blue and I guess white. Other than the green & tan, perhaps they opted to standardize with black suspension, which makes more sense anyway...

[Blackmantis]

I'm going to try and get one of those blue-webbing blue M9s from Lancay, they look quite attractive in my opinion.

I'm surprised Lan-Cay made so many awesome colours, but I managed to get a sneaky little bit of info from Barry @ Lan Cay about their new 2010 models! See below:
Moderator's Note: The information in this post is the fabrication of Blackmantis. Barry Brown of Lan-Cay was not consulted nor has anything to do with this post. The items pictured below were made up by Blackmantis and are not real. They are not available from Lan-Cay or anywhere else that I am aware of.

NEW 2010 MODELS FROM LAN-CAY

http://i14.photobucket.com/albums/a332/Slik_Power/M9_banana.jpghttp://i14.photobucket.com/albums/a332/Slik_Power/M9_daughter.jpghttp://i14.photobucket.com/albums/a332/Slik_Power/M9_surgeon.jpghttp://i14.photobucket.com/albums/a332/Slik_Power/M9_Calicopop.jpg

(From left to right)

Banana-Yellow M9 - The ultimate fishing and rescue knife. Good for Australians as the non-threatening emergency colour might mean the Australian police won't deem it a "military-style killing blade" for once.

Purple M9 - "My Daughters First M9". Sells well in Alaska, Montana, Texas and Florida.

Turquoise M9 - For the ultimate hardcore Surgeon. He'll never enter the Operating Theatre without one of these (for when the scalpel just doesn't cut it... bad pun)

Rainbow M9 - Can't decide what colour to get? Then get ALL Colours! Looks so good you could suck on it like a fruit-pop.

AND FOR A LIMITED TIME ONLY:

http://i14.photobucket.com/albums/a332/Slik_Power/M9_grandpa.jpg

"Great Uncle Freds M9" - Just like every other thing he's passed down to you that he bought "for just two dollars back in 1948". Comes with a rusty blade and a horrible colour theme!

[pwcosol]

Hey, I had a good laugh @ the 2010 models! I think Bill P. once mentioned seeing a pink one @ a show (SABC?) some years back. Wonder if he was ever able to run it down to find out what the deal was...

[Carlo]

Absolutely a great post Blackmantis!!!!!!!!!!!!!
:grin::grin::grin::grin::grin::grin::grin:

[porterkids]

Hey, I had a good laugh @ the 2010 models! I think Bill P. once mentioned seeing a pink one @ a show (SABC?) some years back. Wonder if he was ever able to run it down to find out what the deal was...

There was a display at the SABC banquet one year of a pink "Mary Kay" M9 bayonet with an accompanying tongue-in-cheek write up. For those of you not familiar with Mary Kay, it is a women's cosmetics company that has door to door salespeople. Some of the salespeople drive bright pink cadillacs.

I have a photo of it somewhere. If I can dig it up I'll post a copy.

[Blackmantis]

Hey, I had a good laugh @ the 2010 models! I think Bill P. once mentioned seeing a pink one @ a show (SABC?) some years back. Wonder if he was ever able to run it down to find out what the deal was...

Absolutely a great post Blackmantis!!!!!!!!!!!!!
:grin::grin::grin::grin::grin::grin::grin:

I'm glad you guys enjoyed it :grin: I was a bit worried initially that the "My Daughters M9 sells well in Alaska, Texas" etc might offend some.

I was trying to come up with unique colour combinations that Lan-Cay have not yet produced. Out of average colours, they haven't produced a green, or red model (unless you count the blaze orange model). Red one would probably make a great "My Sons first M9".

Still, who knows what awesome combinations Lan-Cay may come up with in the future? I find the alternate colours quite attractive, and I have sought out to collect them all. So far I have Blue and Orange, with White, OD, Black and an extra orange and blue one (for practical use such as on my boat, maybe I can hunt crocs or enormous aussie sharks with the orange one?).

[porterkids]

We heard from Barry Brown at Lan-Cay. He was very clear that Lan-Cay has never considered any of these colors.

[Oldsmithy]

Since th eBarbie pink is popular on hand guns i would expect someone to make a M16 look alike in pink for the ladies, and then the M9 in pink would make perfect sense. The SAS used pink land rovers for years, maybe another possible purchaser?

[Blackmantis]

We heard from Barry Brown at Lan-Cay. He was very clear that Lan-Cay has never considered any of these colors.

They were meant to be a joke, not to be taken seriously, I should have put that up under the picture, my bad.

[Mister Moon]

http://img684.imageshack.us/img684/2443/prototypescabbardsealbu.jpg (http://img684.imageshack.us/i/prototypescabbardsealbu.jpg/)

Uploaded with ImageShack.us (http://imageshack.us)

[Carlo]

They were meant to be a joke, not to be taken seriously, I should have put that up under the picture, my bad.
For me, it was clear from the beginning that it was a joke.
Anyway, good idea to put a "disclaimer" in the original post, so nobody will be searching the web for these "strange" M9s.
@ Mister Moon: I saw in your website, that those scabbards are from a Buck 184.

[Mister Moon]

:grin: ...