Hey, here's my first atlatal. It and the dart haven't been varnished/stained yet so they should look nicer in a bit. The atlatl body is made of spruce and the fin with the spur is made of pine I think, ( I was short on wood and I scavenged the pine from a broken desk.) The spur is antler, the wrapping on the handle and the wrist loop are of jute, and the atlatl is about 25in. long I think. The designs and pictures I did with a woodburner I got for Christmas, I'd never used one before and I must say I like how it works and looks, has a nice authentic look to it.
The dart is made from a 1/2in. ash dowel and the fletchings are white birch bark, with a steel tubing mini-broadhead that got bent up sticking the dart into frozen earth repeatedly this afternoon.











To make the birchbark fletchings you simply make two cuts with a saw or you could split the wood in a controlled fashion, (split it down to a node if using cane,) in a crisscross fashion, quartering the dart the length of the fletchings plus about 1in. extra. next cut two rectangles of birchbark, (or cardboard,) to the appropriate fletching length and fold them lengthwise. Insert the folded bark rectangle into on of the V shape cuts, then insert the other folded bark fletching into the opposing V shape cut. This makes a 4 feather fletching. Now whip directly above the fletching until you comve near the end of the dart, (I suggest west county whippn') and to be super safe about splitting you could whip below the fletchings as well. This pulls the quartered dowel end back together and keeps the fletchings firmly affixed. Next you can cut the fletchings to shape and size and your done! You need not use any glue, and if the vanes get damaged, ( threw it all afternoon and it went straight down through some 30ft.+ spruce trees without hardly any damage to the fletchings,) you can simply remove the whipping above them, pull them out and insert a new one(s). I see this as an excellent dart to be made on a low budget or in a survival situation as the fletching can all be done with only a little twine or other binding material and a knife.
Please post comments and advice and if you have any questions feel free to ask!