Rare LanCay ?
 

Hi I just found this knife at home , I bought it long time ago. And now I wonder, if it is just ordinary LanCay, or some kind of special edition. And If it is special, it is worth something ? Sorry for quality of pictures. And it is hard to see but buckle on sheath is dated 1992. Thank you for any help with this lovely piece :]

Thanks for your post & pictures of the Lan-Cay M9. It appears you have a standard first pattern M9. The very first bayonets had blades manufactured by General Cutlery. They are identified primarily by the company's name, (now Lan-Cay), being in entirely capital letters (LANCAY), of equal size & font, stamped on the blade's ricasso. The second marking variant is like that pictured on your bayonet, with a larger capital "L" & "C". Lan-Cay eventually received permission to eliminate some of the design features inherent on the original bayonet pattern, and the fuller was one of the first to be deleted. As M9s go, your example is not rare, but IMO more desirable than the majority of later variants . The scabbard should have all four lugs, and likely a original-pattern cutter plate. The 1992 dated FASTEX clip on the suspension would be a correct one for when the bayonet was assembled. If you research some of the many posts provided in this sub-forum, there is plenty of good information available on Lan-Cay's production history.

Thank you for your answers, but now, I am little bit confused from second answer, as I can see on pictures above, If it is 1 from 350 made, it is quite a irregular thing... Just wondering how much is this worth, cause i can see on pictures above inovice from ebay to 905$ :confused: . I am going to read more about this one. Thank you :]

Your bayonet is the standard, first issue LanCay M9. The bayonet shown with the $900+ price is the 1993 model with the shallow fuller. They made approximately 350 of these. This is not the same as the bayonet you have. Sorry.

While 350 of the shallow-fullered (1993) LanCay bayos were fabricated, does anyone have a rough idea how many of the standard, first-issue, LanCay fullered bayonets were made? Thousands? Just trying to understand the potential production run for the early fullered LanCays (excluding the earliest GenCut's).

Thanks,

David

From Barry Brown@ Lan-Cay


Mister Moon...

The deep fullers in the early knives were mostly machined. We had problems in getting a good forge and laser cut much of the first production. Of the deep fullers, either laser pr machined, there were probably less than a very few thousand.




Barry Brown

Thanks, Mister Moon, for the info. Very much appreciated!

Ehm, is there difference between my bayonet, and yours '1992' on this picture ? I am getting confused , again sorry for bothering you, i just want to know what i have :]

And what is the difference between my lancay and yours marked as year 1992 ?Or it is the same ? Sorry for bothering you again :]

It's the same model.
The model 92, as on the photo, is not rare.