Did I say "67"? OOPS! I meant "77," but that that would still be consistent with what you've said here. I took another careful look and I'm pretty sure that this one is pinned. That mistake kind of messed up the whole point I was trying to make, which was that my 32 pattern is one year newer than
Dan1892
's and is (apparently) pinned. Oh, well.
Ahhh, I should've realized that when you said 67 and not 65-69
I found that sometimes you can see the pins from the outside, but looking inside the blade well at the liners often allows you to identify if the shield is pinned or not more easily.
As promised here is an old 18 pattern with an old 32. Hopefully, the "gunstock" portion of the 32 pattern is more evident. You'll notice quite a hard line or "hump" above the C in CASE on the mark side and the same near the end of the pen blade on the pile side. You'll also notice that the turkish style clip on the 18 pattern gives the appearance of a more "exposed" sheepsfoot:
My understanding is that the GEC 76 is a true regular gunstock pattern. And that, for example, the Case 6232 is a reverse gunstock pattern. The GEC gunstock is certainly more pronounced and the Case more subtle. But, both are there if you look closely enough. And, if you open the main blade of the GEC and point it at someone, the "gunstock" will be closest to you. If you open the main blade of the Case 6232 and point it at someone, the "gunstock" will be closest to them. I believe this is where the term "reverse gunstock" came to be. Some pictures for comparison:
Here's another comparison of an older 18, a newer 18, and an older 32 with all blades open except the sheepsfoot. The 18's, like most of my stockmans, have a point outside of the blade well. This is not an issue during normal use. The 32 sits nicely inside of the bladewell:
The more I look at and think about the 32 and 18 patterns, the more I think case just knocked it out of the park with the older 32 pattern and this has nothing to do with it being a gunstock pattern. In theory, the 18 could sit the pen and sheepsfoot blades lower than they are currently, but they don't. Not particularly sure why. Usually, you don't sit a blade lower in the blade well because you want the nail nick to be accessible and you don't want blade rap. There's plenty of room for the nail nick on the 18 pattern. So, I can only assume it rides as high as it does to prevent blade rap. This causes the sheepsfoot to ride higher because the nail nick needs to be accessible. One thing I do believe can be attributed to the gunstock pattern is how nice the 32 pattern feels in hand when using the clip and how nice it looks aesthetically. I think the extra "beef"
(ie; the gunstock) around the sheepsfoot
(because it the gunstock is reversed) makes it just a little bit more comfortable. And the larger clip compliments the sheepsfoot well, making for nice lines.
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