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M10 Red-Thread Scabbard


marysdad
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After many years of searching, I came across one of the M10 red-thread scabbards at last month's Reno, NV, gun show. The scabbard had a BOC M7 bayonet in it, so not a correct bayonet from the same production period. Still a cool find.

 

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Had to go all the way back to Frank Trzaska's Knife Notes 2 in the archives for this:

 

M7 Bayonets

In 1998 a contract was let for M7 bayonets by the US Army. That's right M7s! One might ask why M7s as the Army switched to the M9 bayonet in 1986. Well I never did find the answer but I did find out something about the bayonets and the scabbards. The contract was won by Lan-Cay but they passed the contract on to General Cutlery. As the contract was so small Lan-Cay could not see setting up the necessary equipment to process that job. The total was for 1,300 bayonets. The contract was DAAE20-98-P-0041. The scabbard contract was for 10,700 pieces but this too was passed on to General Cutlery as the two owners of the companies were friends. The scabbards were contracted under DAAE20-98-0221. All the components were delivered by January 1999. While externally it would be impossible to tell the 1999 contract M7 from any commercially built model they are different. Army specs call for a dual heat treat while the commercial models undergo a much cheaper single heat treat. The govt. specs call for a hard blade and a soft tang. Without a hardness tester you can't tell them apart. But the scabbard can be spotted. For some reason the webbing of the scabbard has a single red thread running the length of the webbing. It passed the quality assurance test and was accepted into supply. It's another one to pick up if you see it. The last of the M10 scabbards procured by the US Army in the 1900's.

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  • 5 years later...
9th Infantry Manchu

Mrs. Claus surprised me with a red thread M10 and the corresponding M7 for Christmas this morning under the tree :) thought i would share a few pics. Happy Holidays everyone. Jim

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I'm so glad you posted those pictures.  At some point in time, General Cutlery made their own M10 scabbards which are marked 20014.  I have the red thread scabbard, but it's a Hauser marked 1Z803.  I was always unsure if the  the Gen Cut M7 belonged to the red thread scabbard.  Your red thread is marked 20014 on the package.  That means that Gen Cut subcontracted with Hauser.  Unless.............  You'll have to see through the package to tell whether or not the scabbard has a Hauser number or a Gen Cut number.  If it has the 20014 number, like the label, then that means both Hauser and General Cutlery made Red Thread M10s.  I would hate to have to look for a Gen Cut Red Thread M10 too.

Marv

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