Numbers Compiled from here and here.
US Issue M7's:
Colt made 20,000 green handled ones from 1961. Marked "COLT'S 62316 HARTFORD CONN USA" on the blade.
All other makes have black handles.
Imperial Knife Company / Imperial Schrade Corporation made 30,000 from 1963. Same blade markings as Colt but no markings on the hilt. In 1973 they made an additional 350,000 without blade markings.
Columbus Milpar and Manufacturing Company made some (very few?) with the Colt blade markings and marked "MILPAR USM7" on the hilt; and about 650,000 with unmarked blades from 1964 through 1967.
Conetta Manufacturing Co. made 130,000 marked "CONETTA US M7" on the hilt in the same time period.
Bayer Ord Company made approximately 1.8 million of the things, marked "BOC US M7" on the hilt from 1964 through 1973.
Fraser Manufacturing Company made, perhaps, 40,000 between 1971 and 1973 are marked "FZR US M7".
General Cutlery Company made 127,000 marked "GEN CUT US M7" between 1985 and 1990.
Ontario Knife Company made 58,000 marked "ONTARIO US M7" in 1988 and 1989. The tail end of production has a rubber grip and is designated M7-B.
Australia issued the M7 for their F88 rifle and were made by General Cutlery Co. in 1991. Marked with an "M7" and a broad arrow on the hilt.
Canada issued the M7 for their C7 rifle from 1984 to 1991 made by Nella Cutlery marked "NELLA C7" on the hilt. About 70,000 made.
About 80,000 were made by Carl Eickhorn in 1975 to 1976. The blade is marked "COLT'S 62316 HARTFORD CONN USA MADE IN WEST GERMANY" and the hilt is marked "US M7"
An unknown number of M7 with one-piece black grips were marked "SOLINGEN US M7" on the hilt.
Indonesia issued 80,000 made by PT Pindad marked "S1.PINDAD"
Panama issued one with an extra long blade marked "T65" on the hilt.
The Philippines M7 is unmarked and uses phillips head screws for the grips.
South Korea marks their hilt with "KOREA" and a winged star.
The UAE version is made in China and has a one piece grip similar to the Ontario M7-B embossed with "UAE" on one side and a falcon crest on the other.
Click here to submit $0.00 US for a lifetime subscription
Posts
Comments
I found 150 of these Colts M7 62316 blades in and old shed. I'm hoping to find out more information. Would you be able to help?
ReplyDeleteJust the blades? Some pics would help a lot.
DeleteI have an FZR marked M7 any info on rarity or what it’s worth ?
ReplyDeleteFrom the text above, "Fraser Manufacturing Company made, perhaps, 40,000 between 1971 and 1973 are marked "FZR US M7"."
DeleteIt's one of the smaller production runs.
I can't assess how much it'd be worth because the value of these things fluctuates wildly.
To one seller, it's just an M7 bayonet, $35. To another it's the second rarest version, $200.
But the rather common Imperial made, Colt marked bayonets command a premium over rarer versions. Go figure.
I don't have an FZR in my collection, and I'll offer $70 shipped. That might be generous, that might be low-ball.
The value of ANYTHING is what someone is willing to actually pay NOW, and not what someone else paid yesterday. There's an auction on ebay that's been running for months on an FZR marked bayonet. They've come down from $300 to $258 and nobody's bidding. When someone bids, that's when we know what it's worth... until then... who knows.
Economics and value have lots of situations similar to "what's the difference between potential energy and kinetic energy?"