David, thanks for posts, but I was actually looking for a different explanation. I've already tried my hand at carving wooden display props using a method similar to your drawings, i.e. laminate the wood, cut out an outline, cut down the profile, then carve in the curvature. I've posted a few pic of the results below (taken from the thread I linked to at the top of this discussion). I agree, by the way, that it's really quite easy and the shape emerges pretty naturally from the wood once you get your mind around the curves.

But what I was hoping for was a way to deduce the pre-cut layers as seen in the final photo below. As seen in this photo, original prop makers didn't follow the same method I used on my props. Instead they stacked pre-cut layers and then carved off the edges. This technique had two advantages: 1) it was less wasteful of wood and 2) it allowed each layer to have the wood grain running straight across the length for maximum strength.

The question is how to come up with the shape for each of the pre-cut layers. As I said, I'm sure the information for this lies buries in the views and sections somewhere but I can't figure out how to translate it into patterns for each layer.

Great looking prop you have there, by the way! [sm=thumbs_up.gif]