Main Discussion Area > Cave Men only "Oooga Booga"

Building darts for an atlatl??

(1/3) > >>

AndrewS:
I'm going to build my equipment for this year:
How can I get the right Dart for an atlatl?
Is there any formula for the ratio of length    atlatl:dart??
What is a good length??? What is a good diameter ?? and what is the best FOC ??
A lot questions and I hope there will be a lot of answers :)
Thanks!

Mike_A:
I just started building atlatls so take this with a grain of salt and hopefully some more experienced people will chime in. I use 7 ft 1/2 in diameter tonkin cane from bamboo supply and it flies great. The first dart broke after some use due to a weak spot near a node and the second one seems to fly really good too and is holding up great. In my research I've heard that using a bathroom scale works really well to check spine, just push down on the end of the cane and if it comes in at 10-15lbs it's spined right. Myself I just had someone stand to the side and let me know if the dart came off straight or if it tended to dive up or down. If it dives down it's spined light so cut it a bit shorter. If it comes off tip up then it's spined heavy. I would imagine adding a heavier point could help. Like I said I'm new so I would wait for a few more responses before comitting, especially if you have limited resources. If you want to do a trade for some tonkin cane let me know. I've got near a hundred left and don't need that many. Mike

AndrewS:
Thanks Mike,
I will test the method with the bathroom scale first :)

Hillbilly:
The length will depend on the spine. I usually leave the dart as long as possible and throw it. If it nosedives, cut some off. If the tail kicks down, it's too short or too stiff. Keep chucking and adjusting until they fly the way you want them to. Most of the time, a pretty good range will fly well.

AndrewS:
Hi Hillbilly, you are testing the darts with fletching or without fletching?
Thanks.

Navigation

[0] Message Index

[#] Next page