Phrobis III Clarification Please....

[Dark Nemesis]

Hey all, I;m probably just confused and hopefully someone can straighten me out. I was under the impression that Phrobis III was a design company but did not actual manufacture any knives, point of focus being the M-9 Bayonet.

From what I've read they sub-contracted companies such as Buck and Lancay to make their design for the military contracts. However I've been finding several of these knives that have only the Phrobis III name on the blade. Did they actual manufacturer the M-9 Bayonet at sometime? If so does anyone know where in the timeline they started making the knife themselves, in relation to the Buck production and the Lancay production? As always thanks in advance.

Dark Nemesis

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Crimson Horizon
Nothing but edge baby...
dark.nemesis@home.com

 

[Esav Benyamin]

a search on http://www.google.com for "Phrobis" got me this:

http://www.oregonknifeclub.org/frank3.html

(excerpt)

USMC M9 Bayonet

While we are all familiar with the Phrobis and Lan-Cay made U.S. Army M9 bayonets, few are aware that the Marine Corps also purchased M9's. That's right USMC marked M9 bayonets. They were purchased for "division level field testing" and use by the 2nd Marine Division. As far as we know they are still in use. The original contract was put on an open bid, and Buck Knives won the contract. Buck was the original contractor for Phrobis; but, by the time of this contract (early 1991), they had parted company and were actually bidding against each other. This is the only group of bayonets made by Buck that are solely produced and supplied by Buck without the Phrobis connection. All the bayonets are of the Phrobis first generation style but have the Buck cutter plate on the scabbard. All of the blades are marked with M9-USMC and a plus (+) mark, as this is the Buck date code for 1991. Most of the examples hitting the street today have the webbing portion of the scabbard replaced. The original webbing was of the Phrobis style with the dual retaining straps. This webbing was superceded by the newer Lan-Cay style with the single retaining strap. As the bayonet scabbards began to show wear, the webbing used for replacement was of the type in the system; and this was the Lan-Cay design. Most scabbards still have the male portion of the guard retaining strap still attached to the body. Also seen are the engraving in the bayonets and the scabbards. The M9's were marked to provide easy inventory and storage with an electric pencil. I have seen different markings, and all have been alpha-numeric (B-79 as an example.) Many of these bayonets are currently hitting the streets. Total numbers made were very low, 5000 in total. If the opportunity should present itself, grab one of these babies before they get away.

 

[Dark Nemesis]

Ok, its starting to make a little more sense now. So the ones that Buck produced were the USMC release, right? The one I am considering for purchase has the following blade markings:

<center>
<img src="http://users2.fdn.com/~surplus/M-9b.JPG" align="center" valign="middle" border="0">
</center>

Since it does not have the USMC is not a member of the 5000 piece run, does that make this a fairly common knife? Were the knives in that limited run of a higher quality than the rest? Thanks for the help guys.

Esav: Thanks for looking that up for me, I appreciate it.

Dark Nemesis

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Crimson Horizon
Nothing but edge baby...
dark.nemesis@home.com