Anyone know when the laminates first came out? I first saw the laminated handguards on Britishicon pool supplied L1A1's in Malaya in 1967. Saw them slowly coming in as spare parts in Australiaicon in 68 or 69 but we still had stocks of the originals too. We had been told that we were getting new handguards made from PAXOLIN, the stuff that No7 bayonet grips are pressed out from. Good idea but they'd have been tooooo slippery unless they were roughened up