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


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.



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.)



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.




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]

Originally Posted by 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, 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]

Originally Posted by Blackmantis

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]

Originally Posted by porterkids

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

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.

[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]

Originally Posted by 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.

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