Rare LanCay ?

[Carlo]

Originally Posted by ColinG

Wasn't something mentioned in past threads about these fullered Lancays marked Lan-Cay instead of LanCay. I'll check later today, but something about them being for the commercial market or something like that.

CG

Hi Colin,
yes I saw a lot of Lan-Cay M9s which were released for the commercial market and are not original army issued.
Just look, for example, at this auction
http://cgi.ebay.com/Rare-Fuller-Blad...item2561ca855a.
I can't see from the pictures, but the fuller seems even the shallow one.
Of course the marking Lan-Cay is not correct.
Basically all the M9s with bright blade marked as "Lan-Cay", instead of "LanCay", are not USGI.

[ColinG]

Yes Carlo I see that it is for the commercial market. I found a back thread by member PANCANAL dated 5-16-06 which reads: These M9 Lan-Cay U.S.A. Bayonets have blood grooves. The middle one has a deep blood groove the two on the sides have shallow blood grooves. . . .Note that all three have M9 Lan-Cay USA, and flat grind edge instead of a hollow ground cutting edges. If you look at the die markings they are actually different. One has larger letters. . . Only a handfull were assembled with the larger letters. Less than 20 were assembled with the deep blood groove. Approximately 125 were assembled with the smaller letter die strike and the shallow blood groove. . . Pancanal
After reading this I must disagree with fellow collector Mister Moon in that the auctioned M9 is not "shit". Commercial M9's are quite collectable in their own right and if there were only 20 assembled with the deep blood grove, as Pancanal stated, then that M9 that was recently auctioned with the deep blood grove would be highly collectable.
Colin

[porterkids]

I checked back in my notes, took a look at the current auctions being discussed and spoke to the seller. The bayonets with the fuller and Lan-Cay markings are from a small group made up in the 2003-2003 time period. Lan-Cay had a small group of original blade blanks that for one reason or another were not suitable for their military contract. These blades were not disposed of but held back and stored. The blades were pulled out in 2002 and assembled into bayonets. They were stamped with the current-at-the-time blade marking of Lan-Cay and assembled with the current contemporary parts, that being the Product Improved style scabbard with a 02 or 03 dated Fastex.

These are not 1992 first contract bayonets nor is anyone stating that they are. A genuine Lan-Cay manufactured piece from the 2002-2003 time period.

[ColinG]

Thank you for the information on a further history behind these commercial Lan-Cays. I collect military bayonets and fighting knives to a very limited degree and don't or try not to buy civilian/commercial versions; however, the bayonets that Lan-Cay currently supplies to the military have no different markings than what can be bought on the civilian market. If I remember correctly they used to mark their commercial version "UTILITY' rather than standard, current civilian/military markings. If I read this history correctly, only those Lancays marked UTILITY or the grooved 'Lan-Cay"s were expressly marketed for the civilian market prior to some law that now does not require different civilian/military markings. Of course, those tan, blue, red, etc. Lancay colored bayos are expressely for the civilian market whatever the markings on the blade. Currenly on ebay, as Carlo pointed out, there is a shallow grooved 'Lan-Cay' up for sale. Thinking back, I have seen maybe a half dozen of these shallow grooved Lan-Cays, but never a deep grooved Lan-Cay. So perhaps only 20 of these were made up, making them the rarest bayonet made expressly for the civilian market by the Lan-Cay company. Would you agree with that statement?

CG

[Carlo]

Originally Posted by porterkids

These are not 1992 first contract bayonets nor is anyone stating that they are. A genuine Lan-Cay manufactured piece from the 2002-2003 time period.

Bill,
we all know numeronegi as a reputable and seriuos seller (I myself bought few M9s from him).
In the auction I linked above there was probably an error in the description, which I'm sure was made in good faith (and later corrected/relisted).
Problem is that if a buyer reads, in the ebay description, "The scabbard is dated 1992 and is a match for the bayonet" and "This bayonet is an original U.S. Army surplus production item that was never issued", he could think (if not careful about the marking and the missing saw) that the bayonet was from the legitimate "shallow fuller" lot.
Apologize for my english.
Link to the original auction
http://webcache.googleusercontent.co...=www.google.it

[porterkids]

Carlo,

You are absolutely correct. And when the seller realized that he had mistaken the bayonet for something it wasn't, he immediately ended the auction. numberonegi is a highly reputable seller and a very honest and righteous man. We all make mistakes, how we handle that mistake when it is brought to our attention determines the quality of the person.

[Mister Moon]

NumberONEgi began from his youngest age !
Bravo Howard !




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[SignalSoldier]

Bill Porter is on target. The Lan-Cay fuller blade M-9 on Ebay is an original Lan-Cay production item from 2003. It has a 1992 fuller blade that was part of a batch rejected by Lan-Cay quality control in 1992. The rejected blades were shelved and forgotten at that time. In 2003 the blades were found, brought out of storage, embossed with Lan-Cay and assembled on 2003 dated scabbards (quantity unknown). Lan-Cay owners decided not to sell them as they were oddities. So, at least a dozen of these 2003 M-9's were shelved and forgotten again. In early 2010 I contacted Lan-Cay and inquired about the possibility of these defective knives still being in existance. To my delight a search was conducted and the knives were located. Over a period of about a year I was able to convince Lan-Cay to allow me access to them. Now they are in my possession. Note the smooth area where saw teeth would normally appear. It is my guess that that was the defect that prevented them from sale to the U.S. Army. It was also the reason they were shelved in 2003 rather than being sold commercially. My honorable friends at Lan-Cay had no intentions of passing these knives off as 1992 or defect free knives. In fact, the sale of these knives to me was only done with my promise not to give, sell or trade in any way that would comprimise their intent to deal with total honesty. I will keep one and pass the others along to other collectors. At present I have around 200 M9's and will try not to loose my 2003 fuller blade knife in storage as happened in 1992 and 2003. I have 35 years in uniform and am still counting. Not that I have reach perfection but I press on. Semper Fi

[ColinG]

Hello SignalSoldier,

Could you please clarify or expand on what you are saying. Are you saying that there were only about 12 defective blades turned into 'Lan-Cay' marked bayonets and that they were all without the top serrations? You stated, "Note the smooth area where saw teeth would normally appear. It is my guess that that was the defect that prevented them from sale to the U.S. Army." This is why I am assuming that they were all without the serrations. The deep grooved M9 that recently sold on ebay did have the serrations, so where did that come from? Also, did they all have shallow fullers or was there a mix of deep and shallow grooved fullers? Thanks.

CG

[Mister Moon]

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