|
Interesting observations on your Ontario M9. I do not have a copy of the solicitation by the US Army specifying what type & gauge of wire the M9 was required to cut. However, double-strand barbed wire would have been one. Regarding the bend on the blade tip, (at least from examples of Phrobis/BUCK manufacture I have seen), the tip would tend to break clean rather than bend.
You mentioned the blade appeared bowed or loose; possibly because stress may have caused the threaded tang to come out of alignment with the threaded tang rod. I believe this potential weakness in the design was why both Phrobis & LanCay developed "solid tang" prototypes (primarily requested by the USMC) for trials evaluation. One possibility is the threaded tang & rod on your Ontario M9 might be close to minimal spec for fit. In addition, the tang nut is required to meet a torque spec when tightened. If the nut was not secured sufficiently, this might result in the problem you reported when subjected to stress.
|