making a paper pattern from an original

[54ball]

  I have a chance to handle and photo an original longrifle in a museum.  I am going to try and make a tracing of the rifle.  It seems like a simple job but I wanted to check on here to see if there are any special steps to this.

[Chris Treichel]

There is a diagram of a neat little jig in Building the Pennsylvania Longrifle where a block of wood has a hole drilled through it at an angle for a pencil where the pencil exits the block at the bottom corner. If my backwards explanation doesn't make sense basically it allows you to move the block at right angle to the item with the point of the pencil at the bottom of the block inline with the item.

[D. Taylor Sapergia]

Here's a picture of one of our own, Eric Von Auschwege, taking a profile sketch of a Kuntz rifle at the MET a few years ago.  Notice he's using the device described by Chris, and it worked perfectly.  The block is cut at a sharp angle where the pencil exits the bottom, so that you can get in close to fine nuances such as around the lock and trigger guard.

[54ball]

 Thanks fellows, I never would have thought about that.  I'm going to make up a few of those blocks and practice on some of my rifles.  Thanks

[Dave B]

I use one of these tools on a regular basis. This is a wooden version of the cast aluminum one used for tracing out the leg pattern for making  the old metal leg braces.
The important part is that the pencile contacts the point at which the vertical section contacts the surface of what your tracing. here a couple picts so You get the Idea.