Fake M9 Ontario?

[Blackmantis]

Hi guys, a bit new here and new to the world fo knife/bayonet collecting, so I apologize in advance if I make no sense or anything.

I recently ordered an Ontario M9 in the mail, although I'm curious as the Ontario M9 I received in the mail from "Cutting Edge Knives Australia" doesn't have the same looks as the ones I've seen in images.

Below is a comparison image of a common Ontario M9 image and my knife offset to the right.

.

The Ontario I have has a grip that becomes wider in the middle and thins back out again towards the top and bottom. It also lacks the vertical grooves found on most m9 models, and the diamond-etch pattern also becomes entirely smooth/flat and turns into nothing at the front and back of the grip.

The knife reads:

M9
ONTARIO
KNIFE CO.
USA

It does have a small round dot-mark too. Although it's a "New in packet" model, when removing it from the sheath, it had a terrible scratch-like mark down the sides of the blade from the mechanism of the sheath (no protective grease?)

Is anyone able to tell my why mine has a different grip (Although it's not too important I'm guessing, but I want to be sure I haven't got another Australasia clone since the last "Phrobis M9" I bought turned out to be a terrible gate operators Taiwan model).

[Mister Moon]

On your photos , 2 real M9 ontario .... Only different generation.

[Blackmantis]

Ah thanks.

I got it for $160 AUD wheras other M9's in Australia cost around $400, which sounded a little odd to me, so I wasn't sure if it was a fake or not.

Any suggestions about what I can do to the blade, as it has a nasty scrape-like mark along the side which I cannot remove and I've never really worked with knifecare products. I wish to remove the scrape if possible.



Thanks for your help!

[Mister Moon]

Auction ebay : Item number: 180254796982

[Blackmantis]

I'd buy from overseas in an instant, but so far every time I have, customs have nicked it. I ordered a model back in 2007 and declared it, etc filled in the forms but it never arrived, apparently it was destroyed by customs again so I got fed up and stopped ordering from overseas.

[Mister Moon]

where do u com from ? China !

[Blackmantis]

Australia, (If I were in China, I'm sure I could find a Taiwan M9 for sale somewhere ;)). Our customs is really strict here (they restrict even plastic or wooden model/display/practice knives coming in through customs here. It took me a month to get an entirely wooden Rubber-band-gun in through customs because it had to be checked to make sure it wasn't able to be used in a deadly manner.

Thanks for the help though. M9's seldom show up on Ebay Australia, but they're often used and battleworn, and I'm keeping my eye out for new stuff. The Collectors Armoury war museum, and Military Surplus stores only sell cheap Taiwan clones (despite being $50 more than the Ontario one I got), and the knife stores sell most M9s for about $300.

[Mister Moon]

Yea ... I'd see your customs to the french TV some days ago , and i see they're very very strict ! It's horrible for the Australian collectors ..... Change country !

BlackMoon

[Blackmantis]

I'd love to hit the USA, and I don't know about French gun/knife laws. France sounds like a nice place though! It's so hard for Aussies to migrate to other parts of the world these days though. The only way I can get out is a green-card lottery.

[lee cousens]

Hi and welcome to the site, i often post bayonets from the UK to Australia with no problems what so ever, the last m9s were opened by customs and cleared ok, perhaps it depends on were the items are arriving from?
Sorry your having so much hassle, it would be nice to live in the states as we both miss out on some great bayonets