So this knife certainly looks like a pattern 45 variation to me. It has the CASE XX(1940-64) tang stamp but no model number. Could the reason be that this knife is an early 640045 meaning it was not made in house by Case and the model number was overlooked or purposely left off?

I'm certainly no expert on case knives but my trusty book usually holds all the answers I need; in this instance 2 things bother me: 1) I am not familiar with style or specific use of blade adjacent to the punch blade. I've been scanning google images and have not seen another example of that blade, but then, I may not have performed the correct search. 2) Though I have found other examples with this oversized style bale, now that it has my attention, I'm wondering if anyone has any info on that; was it used for a specific reason or era, was it random, is it a bit more rare or does it add to value? Basically what, if any, info does it indicate.

Thanks for any insight. They may not be major concerns worth spending much time on but I can't abide mysteries, even if they are only mysteries to me.