5 min atlatl dart

[jerv]

Having made hundreds of atlatl darts and driven myself quite mad with all the hand fletching and straightening, I have worked out a quick and easy way to make a pretty decent dart.
You'll need: A bamboo pole about 6' long and as straight as you can find. The diameter is really up to you but about 12mm at the thick end is good. Fletchings and jute cord.

step one: cut a point in the thick end, a simple 30 degree or so bevel will work fine. cut from a node and make the point fairly short. Bind just behind the point with the jute cord.

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it's a shocking photo but you get the idea

step two: cut the nock end down to a node then hollow out a depression for the point of your spearthrower spur to go in. Bind with cord.

step three: take two feathers (any bird will do but primary flights will be better) and tie them onto the back end of the spear. Tie them on whole just like bushman arrows. The feathers should face different directions. You could also use duct tape and I have fletched darts with squirrel tails.

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it doesn't look pretty but man it works I was out throwing this dart today and it fared pretty well it went neatly into both 3ds and straw bales. Frustrating it out performed a hazel oak dart that took hours to make. The bamboo point doesn't like hard surfaces too much but at least when it breaks you can take the feathers off and make a new one.

 

[Snufkin]

Great book you have in the background. I've both the earth skills books and they are full of good stuff. A good way to test the spine of darts is to put the fat end on a pair of scales and push down on the thin end if they bend when the pressure applied is in the 4-7lb region they'll make a good dart. If they bend lighter you can shorten the dart. Also the dart may tend to bend one way more that another. If so mark the direction and ensure you throw the dart with this weaker side uppermost as if it is aligned sideways it can affect accuracy.

 

[jerv]

yeah that book is awesome. It's really dense and full of no-crap practical primitive info. A british one would be good as I often can't find the wood species they talk about in the book.
My darts are long and I fletch them helically to conteract the fact that I don;t spine them. I'll post a photo of one in flight quite a bit of flex. The darts weigh in at aboout 6oz

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the man who won the competition used stiff cane darts look at how little his flex when cast

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when you say 6-7lbs would that be on the same scale as arrow spines?

 

[Snufkin]

No it just a set of bathroom scales. Mine are the old fashioned ones with a dial and they're tricky to read, digital ones would be better. When I was throwing alot I got used to the "feel" of how much flex they needed and got some strange looks in the garden center as I sorted through the garden canes and tested them.
I found it was best to go for slightly over flexible 6-7' canes and trim them down. Also, if your dart is too stiff you can add a heavier or longer foreshaft.

 

[rich59]

the man who won the competition used stiff cane darts look at how little his flex when cast

Is that picture of Russell? Must have changed his clothes.

That picture:-

I think does not show that his dart flexes less. I think it shows a crucial moment in atlatl dart technology.

If you peer from the side of the picture you can just see that there are 2 bends in the dart at the moment of release, not one. Also if you look at the picture straight on you can see 2 points along the dart length where it is in focus, with the regions each side and in the middle seen to be in motion.

I think that picture captures what the dart is doing at the moment or release. A moment later it would have lookd flexed like your dart Jerv.

 

[Snufkin]

I tend to agree with Rich, it looks like you've captured the image just as the dart is straightening up at the moment it leaves the thrower.

 

[jerv]

Yes I think you are right I have a picture of his dart in flight that I am going to post. It's very unusual to get clear pictures of darts in flight.
The photo is from the saturday before when we were throwing darts at pork shoulders

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you can just see the dart there.
I have no idea what my local hardware store think i get up to I'm fairly sure they try to avoid me though!

 

[Snufkin]

These threads have inspired me to get back into throwing . Went out today and cut four good dart shafts, three sycamore and one hazel.

 

[rich59]

There are a load of interesting things about this picture:-

You have captured something that is not supposed to happen. You have captured the dart still being in contact with the atlatl during the downard part of the movement of the head of the atlatl. Previous analysis has suggested that the dart and atlatl part company at the top of the arc made by the atlatl.

Also you have I think pictured the atlatl deflexing. There seems to be a bend in the beginning of the fuzzy arc but it looks dead straight at the end of the captured motion. Again previous analysis has shown the atlatl still bent at release point.

All these points I think explain the formidable speed of Russell's dart. I think he has flexible atlatl and a perfectly tuned dart that release almost all the stored energy in the bending of both dart and atlatl into forward motion. I think most peoples dart waste a lot of energy in wobbling a lot

 

[bent-stick]

I thought Russell was throwing your darts at the pork jerv...or is this one of his?

 

[jerv]

in that pic russel is throwing his own cane replica. I had a look at his ISAC dart yesterday. It's nothing special a piece of thin bamboo (cane) unstraightened with low duct tape fletchings it's very light but pretty flexible. I think rather than having especially well tuned darts russel was throwing so well because he's been doing it for years.

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the dart being cast. A fair amount of flex there

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russels atalt was a repilica of one used in wyoming it was very thin and would certainly have flexed. his flight thrower was a cut down billiard cue

 

[Selous]

I've never thrown with a spear thrower. When I was a lad we used string arrow throwers and they worked very well.

This thread is very interesting. I'd like to have a go. I feel I know how to make the dart/spear/arrow. But how do I make the thrower? I recall a picture Patrick did of a superb piece of wood with some sort of slate counter-balance but it looked hugely sophisticated to me, and i felt sure I wouldn't be able to replicate it. Further, I have no idea of the principles involved, so I wouldn't know if I was doing it right, even if I had the skills to make it!

Is there any guidance on the making of a spear thrower? Or a picture of something a little simpler than Patrick's work of art? And any tips how to use it?

Or a cut-down billiard cue..... I think even I could manage that! Or maybe not, but I could give it a try, and using it would give me some insight into the principles and tecniques involved. So... anyone got a photo or guidance on the thrower?

Much appreciated.

 

[Exbomz]

Try http://www.atlatl.com/ as a start. Interesting video.

Or for atl atl plans http://www.thudscave.com/npaa/designs/index.htm - this one gives different designs from across the world.

 

[rich59]

I've never thrown with a spear thrower. When I was a lad we used string arrow throwers and they worked very well.

This thread is very interesting. I'd like to have a go. I feel I know how to make the dart/spear/arrow. But how do I make the thrower? I recall a picture Patrick did of a superb piece of wood with some sort of slate counter-balance but it looked hugely sophisticated to me, and i felt sure I wouldn't be able to replicate it. Further, I have no idea of the principles involved, so I wouldn't know if I was doing it right, even if I had the skills to make it!

Is there any guidance on the making of a spear thrower? Or a picture of something a little simpler than Patrick's work of art? And any tips how to use it?

Or a cut-down billiard cue..... I think even I could manage that! Or maybe not, but I could give it a try, and using it would give me some insight into the principles and tecniques involved. So... anyone got a photo or guidance on the thrower?

Much appreciated.

Selous, great to hear you are interested in trying atlatling. The atlatl can be as simple or as complicated as you want to make it. Provided it can push the end of the dart then that is the minimum requirement. My first atlatl was just a limb from a tree. Here is its head:-

And here it is in its current form - thinned down but still retaining the original grip and peg areas:-

and here is a collection Jerv showed a while back

 

[jerv]

here are some throwers i've been making recently. The top one is a replica and was a lot harder to make than it looks.
the three below are easy enough and effective. hazel shafts shaped with a taper to the tip a depression is carved and an antler spur tightly glued and bound (artificial sinew). then you can add a handle wrap in this case jute cord. the curved base of the thrower is important as it moves in your hand.

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the tips ignore the one on the left.

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as has been posted elsewhere you want the tip to be light. A carved tip would be better in that respect but I built these throwers as "loaners" and wanted them to be durable
the thrower really is the easy part but is the part which you can get a bit creative with.
Ishi said "any bit of wood is good for a bow but it's arrows that kill deer" which is doubly true for the atlatl and dart

 

[Selous]

Exbomz, Richard,

Thanks very much for your advice and illustrations. I'm going to go out at the weekend and try this out. I'll be back....

Regards

Richard

 

[Selous]

And thanks Jerv.


Incidentally, how do you do that thing where you put in a box in your reply the message you are replying to? That would be a useful skill in itself.

Regards

 

[rich59]

You hit the "Quote" button at the bottom right of the message.

 

[sargey]

And thanks Jerv.


Incidentally, how do you do that thing where you put in a box in your reply the message you are replying to? That would be a useful skill in itself.

Regards

if you look at the bottom right hand corner of the post you're interested in, you'll see there is a button marked "quote" if you click on this it'll flag up a reply box with the persons quote already instaled for you.

as a question for the atlatl experts, have you got any thoughts on the simplest and easiest atlatl and dart combo to teach a group of youths to make and throw in a couple of hours?

cheers, and.

 

[jerv]

yes the 5 min dart as modelled here with duct tape fletchings. atlatls can be sticks picked up off the ground if you like. You can make them from branches cut from trees or fire hardened green wood. bamboo can be cut to make a nock. not at all hard. you could even make a whole set form one 6' bamboo pole. Cut 4-5' for the dart and then make the thrower made from the thick end.