Black Austrailian issue Buck M9 Bayonet?

[1feral1]

Greetings from yet another hot humid day here in the Brisbane area of Queensland, Australia.

After serving almost 11 yrs in the Australian Army, the only M9 Bucks I have seen are the standard stainless types so marked like in the picture, but NOT black/phosphated etc.

I have seen hundreds upon hundreds, and yet again, upon hundreds of them, as I was involved in an M9 bayonet rebuild programme in 1995.

However as I have said in a past post, late pattern LAN-CAY black blades do exist on LAN CAY bayonets and scabbards which have since been purchased to increase numbers of the M9 in service.

With these black ADF Buck marked blades, I tend to believe they are some after market over runs for the civvy market, or some kind of prototypes, but I doubt this (no scabbard with the broad arrow? - thats why I would go for the contract over run theory), as I, nor anyone else I have spoke to ever seen a Buck black blade in service period!

About bead blasted Aussie blades in service. This was part of the rebuild process, and on many I did personally. It got rid of any knicks and blemishes from their service life, and it gave them a new look without damaging anything.

Cold beers,

Wes (AKA 1feral1)

EDIT: I can contribute to the Aussie M9 page (if this is made up) with what I have, including different web retaining straps on rebuilds (locally made at a Defence rebuild facility) on the Buck model (I have a few pics), plus some LAN-CAY pics too.