I’d like to learn how to use an atlatl, so I decided to try making one. I got a new knife for my birthday, so I cut a piece of yaupon and started turning it into one.

I need to finish cleaning off the wood and to shape the little knob that the darts sit on.

Do y’all have any tips for making/using one?
Thanks!

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Cut a small groove on the front to fit the dart. I actually just had mine out today, showing my new neighbor

Bills given me some good advice on atlatls in the past. Wish I could remember it now to pass it on. I look forward to seeing what you come up with. 

What do you plan on using for darts?

Wrap the end in strin to stop to wood grain from splitting

Atlatls have come up a few times in the forum. If you search around you'll find a lot of information. I've made an atlatl but have never got around to making the darts :D I've tested it with a very rough dart which was basically a long pointy stick and it worked alright. I feel atlatls are easy to make, hard to perfect.

Rub it down with cooking oil to stop it from cracking.  Vegetable or animal based is fine.

Do you have access to river cane or bamboo?

Lot of different styles on the net. Pick one or combine several. This stick was laying on my driveway.  It is a little too short , but I had fun carving it :)

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I do have easy access to bamboo: I could probably even be paid to take it out :p

I did wrap the ends in jute to keep it from splitting. I’ve got to do some more detail work and to really get off two little knobs of dry rot where old branches were attached (the rot hasn’t progressed at all, though). I’m then going to finish those details, then finish it — probably with mineral oil — then rebind the ends.

I went out today to do some preliminary testing — the first “dart” was the stem of something called frostweed. It broke immediately — the force was far too much. I then walked out to a bamboo grove and scouted for a skinny, standing piece that was dead. I didn’t want to bring out a saw if it didn’t work, which is why I was looking for a dead one. Unfortunately, most were too big (2” around), but I did find a few dead stalks about 7’ long of the right width and cleaned off the branches.

I threw them a couple times and holy cow! Even without a point or flights, they flew beautifully straight and fast. IDK how far they would’ve gone (because of stuff around me), but even without much effort, they were going 15m or so before hitting stuff. It was also way easier to aim than I thought it’d be. I’m not all that good at throwing stuff, so I’m also impressed with how far they went. I also really like the little knob at the handle end — it helps line the thing up. It makes a perfect pocket for my thumb.

I’m really, really excited to finish this and make some quality darts for it.

Well, the atlatl is done and treated with mineral oil. It took like 20 coats, but it should last longer now. The twine wrapping wasn’t a good idea — it came loose the first throw even though it was tied on very tightly with constrictor hitches...

I also discovered that standing, dead bamboo is not a good dart shaft. I was trying to tune a piece, and on the 4th throw, there was a sickening snap and two pieces of bamboo were thrown forward...

I guess I’ll have to cut some living culms to make the darts.

This is getting annoying. I've now snapped 3 pieces of bamboo while trying to tune them. 2 were alive and dried until they were light, and one was the dead one I mentioned. Any idea why? I  attached a frame from a video I took showing the issue -- see the break?

Also, I think the bamboo I'm using is too wide for the spur on this atlatl -- from my iPhone videos, it seems to be slipping off early.

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Maybe thinner pieces would be more flexible. It does seems they are just too stiff to withstand the force so go much thinner would be my suggestion. I think if you went thicker that would also work but then you end up with heavier darts.

Either too thin or not actually bamboo. Bamboo is used in arrows which have a much greater degree of acceleration. I can't understand how you could be breaking it. A too thick dart won't flex enough based on my limited understanding and should fly upwards I believe. If it's extremely narrow it might flex too much and break but it would have to be really, really weak for bamboo to break.

Someone put an APB out for Bill.

It’s definitey bamboo, and it’s not all that thin either. This “snap” was one of one of the  internodes breaking — here are some pictures.

Could this be caused by improper drying? To let it dry, I just leaned it up against my house in the shade, with all the branches/leaves cut off until it wasn’t heavy anymore. But, it’s been ~100°F in the afternoons.

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There's lots of different species of bamboo and cane. Maybe it's a mechanical issue but it could also very well be an issue with that species. Either it naturally grows very thin sidewalls or some other issues.

Bamboo can be bent with heat or tempered without losing a serious amount of strength and that is a much higher heat than 100 degrees so I would say it's unlikely heat is the culprit.

OK, I use river cane, which is in the bamboo family.  River cane dies after three years, it gets denser and thicker walls as it ages.  At a guess, you used bamboo that is too young and the side walls are too thin.

Second guess is that the bamboo is still too green.  I put my river cane on the barn roof in the sun, I rotate it every couple of days until it's yellow.  That takes about two weeks down here in Alabama in the summer.

Third guess, you're putting too much of a "snap" in your throw.  Think pushing the point at the target instead of throwing it.  Is your Atlatl flexing as you throw?

I make Atlatls' out of the same piece of cane that I make the dart out of.  The base section and about three nodes, depending on length, the remainder of the shoot is the dart. 

You are launching the large end as the point?  Your dart should be your height or a little more, if your Atlatl is rigid, you will need a shorter and thicker dart.

Is there a minimum time that you should wait between each applying of oil?

There's all kinds of ways to make a atlatl you want a little flex in bot your atlatl and dart and when you make your shot don't throw it as hard as you can it about finesse and following through what some of Tom Mills video if you can find them

Dart   your dart needs to be about the size of your index finger at the bottom and taper up a good bit on the nock end of the dart about 6 to 7 feet long

https://youtu.be/mT9jbJ4jfBQ

That's a nice clip!

Yeah using an Atlatl is definitely more technique than effort.
I snapped in half the first Atlatl dart I threw.
I man David knows me and did not say, ‘don’t give it proper welly’.
His fault :-)

It’s very similar to using a staff sling, definitely more about technique than power.

Here is a deer I took with the atlatl.

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Here is a deer I took with the atlatl.

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Looks like your dart stayed whole? 

Every deer and hog I have hit always broke the dart by running next to a tree.  Or between two of them.

You in Alabama, too?   

Tell us more please.
How close where you to the beast when it was slain?