I'm an intermittent archer, but I've got some free time this Summer, and thought it might be a great opportunity to make a proper -- i.e. decent -- atlatl set. I've made quickie atlatls before, but they've usually consisted of 'stuff I've picked up in the woods and whittled'. They've worked after a fashion, but not in the way Paleoaleo's / Paleoarts / and Atlatl Bob's have.
 
I already know where I can source the flint and slate for the arrowheads, the wood for the foreshafts / tailshafts / atlatl itself (it's all around me), the pine pitch (ditto), the feathers for the fletching (ditto) and the sinew for reinforcement and binding.
 
Where I'm stuck for ideas is on the best place to source the dart shafts which, after all, are actually the most important bits. I could go into the forests and try and source some saplings / branches, then dry them, but that would a.) take too long and b.) still wouldn't necessarily guarantee the right kind of spine without a lot of rasping / sanding. I could also go around the builder's merchants / garden centres looking for the right kind of bamboo / cane staves, but I've been told this is very hit and miss.
 
Does anyone have good ideas where to source approximately correctly-spined shafts in the UK? I don't mind doing the 'straighten over a heat source' thing (in fact, it's quite therapeutic), but I don't want to spend days sanding to get a decent spine. I'm looking for shafts that probably bend in the 8-10 pound region. Any ideas?

Hazel will do fine for the darts. Willow and elm from a stymied tree may do fine as well. If it's crooked, you just heat it over a fire and bend it straight.
 
You can use just about anything for the thrower.

Thanks for the suggestions so far.
 
Nope. As far as I know there is zero evidence for any kind of atlatl use where I live, although there's a lot for mesolithic archery. Curse us for being so ahead of the curve, I guess.  
 
Quote from Fundibularius on May 24^th, 2012, 11:49pm:

 
Did you have to do any particular processing with them to get them to the right flex, or were they pretty good as they were?

If you can get some ash boards, rip saw into squares, then take a plane and round the corners until it is round.  I have done this with red oak and white oak, I started with 2X4's and made two thick thrusting spears and 1X4's and made four darts.  Paleoarts suggested using a large drill and a rasp to rough in the smaller shafts, I haven't tried it (no large drill) but it should save a lot of time if you have got one.  These boards were unfinished so the dimensions were actual size, 2X4 was actually 2 inches (5cm) by 4 inches (10cm).

Quote from Bill Skinner on May 25^th, 2012, 10:24pm:

You don't need a large drill. Just narrow one end of the piece to fit the drill/electric screw driver, and go easy with the rasp. Support the other end of the piece while you work - a hole in a cardboard box works just fine.

With time I`ll use scientific methods like he does.  For now I simply throw away those saplings who break or don`t fly well.