New member / Buck Bayonet M9

C

Credit Guy

Joined
Oct 22, 2002
Messages
39
Hello,

New member here. I am not a specialist but I love knives. I have a Buck Bayonet M9 that is in mint condition and I think it is probably the stronger ''commercial'' knife out there ? I know Buck stopped making the knife in 1998-1999 but how good is this knife ? What is the ultimate survival knife ?


Thanks for your reply..
 
"The ultimate survival knife" is something to be much debated, but for the money I say the Becker Combat/Utility 7 or Combat/Utility 9, if you don't care about money, considers Busse or Simonich handmades.

Your Buck Bayonet M9 is something of a treasure to those who are into bayonets, seeing as Buck made the best version of the M9 Bayonet out there (The Ontarios are just plain crap). As a knife the M9 Bayonet is actually pretty poor, so if I were you, i'd try to sell it to someone who wants a good bayonet for his Pre-ban AR-15 or Mossberg 590 and transform that money into a good knife (because of the relative scarcity and quality of condition of your Buck bayonet, you could probably get around $100 for it, which could then be used to buy a pretty dang nice knife.)
 
Actually you could probably get from $150-$200 for a mint Buck M9, but not from me. I've carried both the older M7 and the M9 bayonet. I prefer the M7, which because of it's lighter weight, I'm able to carry my own combat knife (was a Mad Dog ATAK Hunter, now is the Chris Reeve Green Beret Knife).

The M9 was developed to do too many things so it does none of them as well as a dedicated tool for that job, and with the sheath, it is too heavy. Try carrying it all day with your rucksack, weapon, and other gear and you'll soon learn to resent that heavy boat anchor!
 
Your Buck M9 is part of a short but very interesting history of the M9 bayonet, and depending on the specific "version" you have, could be worth quite a bit more than you have been led to believe thus far. The M9 bayonet, in its short time has seen dozens and dozend of changes, some big and some not so big. Regardless of the magnitude of the change this many variants to one pattern makes the M9 VERY collectable.

Buck became a subcontractor for the M9 bayonet in 1986. The prime contractor was a company called Phrobis. Due to some sort of dispute, Buck wound up purchasing the company along with the product rights to knives they developed. After three years the contract was terminated with Buck and was opened for bidding. A company called Lancay won the contract.

Reportedly, the Lancay units were low quality and failed in the field...mainly broken blades. As a tool these are not regarded as desirable knives but to the collector they are part of the rich history of the M9.

Sorry, got a little of track there. Your Buck M9, if it is the "civilian" model, i.e. the ricasso is stamped "Buck 188 / U.S.A" or some variant thereof, would fetch around $100. BTW, the "/" is a date code (1989) so yours could be some other symbol.

At the other end of the spectrum, an "issue" model baring the same sort of stamp as mentioned earlier with "M9 USMC" above it ( made in 1991?) could fetch, in mint condition, $500 - $600 (ref. U.S. Military Knives Bayonets and Machetes, Price Guide, Forth Edition pg.24 by Silvey, Boyd, Trzaska). Even more valuable than these are the bayonets Buck made for the USMC in 1992, having a one piece blade-tang construction, as there were only about 250 units made. Within this 250 units there are two variants, further increasing the value of each ( one had an Allen head bolt securing the latch plate to the tang within the handle, the other had the tang "rivited" to the latch plate ).

Of course there are all sorts of in-betweens, for example the Phrobis made Army issue model would be somewhat more common and correspondingly of less value. Conversly, in 1991, Austrailia purchased Buck-made M9's which were marked with the Commonwealth "Broad Arrow" proof in place of the date code. These, I suspect, would fetch something similar to the USMC M9 (1991). :)

Sorry for the lenth of my reply, I could go one forever. Like I said, the M9 has a short but rich history. Wanna hear more?
 
Thanks for the replies..

I have a hard time thinking the Buck M9 is not a good knife but I think I understand what you are saying. It is heavy to carry and it is not very ''user friendly'' but it can do a lot of things compare to other knives. My real question regarding the Buck M9 was regarding the quality of the steel and the quality of the ''manufacturing''.... Can someone tell me ? The Simonich knives are nice. I like the Raven combat and the Nordooh (maybe quite too long). Does someone know the price of the Nordooh ? I like ''Rambo'' style knife with many gadgets so that is why I bought the knife.

My Buck M9 has a 188 code with an inverse U. What does this mean ? I bought the knife 5 years ago in Quebec city, Canada. There was only one in the store and probably one in 150 miles around. The price tag was 299$ CDN dollars. I said to the guy that a dealer in Montreal was selling it for 220$ CDN (not true !). His answer was let me call him (ouchhh !) He tried to call him 2-3 times but the line was always busy so he gave me the 220$ CDN price.....I runaway pretty quickly from the store.....

Does Simonich knives can deliver in Canada ? Could not find out on their website ...

Thanks
 
www.simonichknives.com

Look at his Mid-Tech Raven. I carry it whenever I fly in the helicopter. Yes, Rob can ship it to Canada. His knives are some of the best you will find. I think the Raven is around $300.
 
Refer to the last sentence of the 4th paragraph in my last post for the meaning of the "inverse U". As for the steel used in the Buck M9, I'll do some checking.
 
Mine is marked Phrobris III with the fish logo. Came with Mil-spec instructions. I was assured by Buck it is one they made and not the Marto? Or Ontario models (which were very brittle in cold weather and would snap on a regular basis when used for digging...:barf: )

They were used in Space Above and Beyond... say no more:cool:
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top