General Cutlery Company of Fremont, Ohio produced approximately 127,000 M7 bayonets for US military issue between 1985 and 1990.  These bayonets were standard M7's with the two piece black handles and US M7 and GEN CUT stamped onto the crossguard.  GEN CUT also produced a tan handled M7 with a tan M-10 scabbard for the commercial market. The handle for this version is painted tan. They also produced a white handled M7 that came with a black M-10 scabbard. The handle is not painted white, but is molded white through and through. These bayonets are somewhat rare and I personally have not seen one for sale in about four years. What they were made for is not known. They could have been a military contract, but for what use? If they were commercial items, they did not flood the market as the tan handle versions have. In 1998, Lan-Cay won the then current contract with the US military for the M9 bayonet. With this contract they also received a contract to produce 1,300 M7 bayonets for the US military along with a contract to produce 10,700 black M-10 scabbards. Not being equipped to make the M7's or M-10 scabbards, this part of the Lan-Cay contract was subcontracted out to General Cutlery. A couple of years ago while at the annual SABC show in Baltimore, I ran into Frank Trzaska. He had picked up a M7 bayonet in a M-10 scabbard that he knew I was looking for and I bought it off him. The reason I wanted this particular scabbard was that it was one from the 1998 GEN CUT subcontracted production run. It seems that during the production of those M-10 scabbards, a single red thread appears on the left side of the frog. Whether the entire 10,700 were produced that way is unknown, but it is a very rare M-10 scabbard. Later, on the way home, my brother noticed that the M7 bayonet that came with that scabbard was approximately one inch shorter than a normal M7. When Frank got home he found that his scabbard with the red thread also had a short version of the M7. I know other people that have checked their collections and say they have a regular length GEN CUT M7 with that scabbard. So, on one of the very last production runs of M7 bayonets for the US military, you have a rare M-10 scabbard with a rare M7 bayonet that somehow both made it past government inspection and quality control.

Ontario Knife Company produced approximately 58,000 M7 bayonets for the US military during 1988 and 1989. These were standard M7 bayonets with the two piece black handle and US M7 and ONTARIO stamped onto the crossguard. Ontario also produced a tan handled version of their M7 for the commercial market. The last M7 that I have seen produced by Ontario has been the rubber handled version that they designated the M7-B. The handle gives you a sure grip and is marked on one side with an oval containing the words US ARMY, and the other side has an oval with the Army Eagle inside it. It is a nice addition to a collection as it was a limited production run, but it was strictly produced for the commercial market