Category Archives: Our Products

Making the Conical Copper Atlatl Dart Point

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The conical copper points that are found in the Great Lakes area of the United States were originally produced by people from The Old Copper Culture. The copper “culture” began as early as 7000 years ago by some estimates so it is likely to have embraced many cultures over dozens of centuries. The conical copper point was used for the entire time so it must have been a very successful design. Not only are they a good design but the color of the copper is beautiful.

My experiments using this style of copper point have proven to me that they are also a very successful modern atlatl dart point design as well. An interesting quality of copper is that it work hardens. As you create the point it makes it very hard and resistant to damage. The tips of copper points will often bend but it is very easy to straighten them out even while you are afield using a couple of rocks; one as a hammer and the other as an anvil.

I have experimented with natural copper nuggets several times but it is rare and expensive to get so I use modern copper sheets to produce the conical copper points I make. The thickness of the copper I start with is usually 1/16” or thicker. I start by cutting triangles of copper with a tin snip that are about 2 ½” long by the diameter of the dart times three and one half. The next step is to hammer the three edges so they taper down to almost paper thinness. The reason for this is that in forming the cone the two sides need to overlap. I use a ball peen hammer and an anvil. In addition to these tools I use a mandrill and a wooden block with a half cone shape carved out that matches the mandrill shape.

After hammering out the edges I anneal the copper in a fire or in the flame of a torch. I then use the mandrill and wood block to begin rolling the cone, and then finish it by hammering the cone around the mandrill. The ancient Old Copper Culture People used mandrills hammered from copper. I use iron mandrills that I make on my metal lathe. I have also used temporary mandrills made of hardwood like Osage or Hard Maple.

Conical points have an added advantage in that they have a very large glue surface area which means that you can use traditional pine resin glue to fasten them onto your dart shaft.

I have had a few darts last several years without the copper points coming off. When copper points are new the tips are so pointy that they will penetrate as well as stone points or broadheads and it is very likely that people of the Old Copper Culture used conical copper points for hunting and fishing.

By Bob Berg

Where do Thunderbird Atlatls get their names from?

Back in the early ’90s when I first started designing atlatls, I was working a carpentry job in Wyalusing, PA. At the time, I was experimenting with atlatls with rests, and ended up creating one of the first original Atlatl designs in a thousand years, and the first official Thunderbird atlatl. I decided to name it the “Wyalusing” after the town I was working in — it was a word of Indian origin, and it had a nice ring to it.

“Wyalusing” comes from Native American words: “Wigalusing” meaning, “the good hunting ground” and “M’chwihilusing” meaning “the place of the hoary veteran.” M’chwihilusing which was the original name of Wyalusing, prior to European settlement.

Over the next year, I designed several other Atlatls and decided to keep with the theme of naming them after local Indian names — towns, rivers, lakes and such. Soon, the Wappasening, the Tioga, the Hiawatha, the Catatonk, and several other designs were born.

We’ve kept up with this trend for the past twenty years, and several other atlatl manufacturers that came after Thunderbird Atlatl seem to have liked this idea as well, and followed suit.

Here’s a map with all of these places plotted out on a map. The red dot in the middle is our shop, and you can see that all of the Indian-named places nearby were our inspiration. Most of them come from Iroquois names – the 6 tribes that made up the Iroquois Confederation were centered around modern day New York State.

-Bob Berg


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Making Your Own Atlatl or Spearthower and Darts

Thunderbird Atlatl offers a variety of atlatl kits based on our popular atlatl models. Making your own atlatl or separthrower gives you a chance to personalize your atlatl and also save some money.

You can also make your own darts from our dart kits. The kits are easy to put together and require a little sanding and finishing with glue and Linseed or Tung oil or paint.

Kits come with instructions. Our kits were featured in Make Magazine a few years ago. You can check the article out online.

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If you have a group of 10 or more, we offer special bulk pricing so you can work together to make your own atlatl team! Give us a call at 800-836-4520 or email us at contact@thunderbirdatlatl.com.

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Good Customer Service Important for Thunderbird Atlatl!

One thing we pride ourselves on here at Thunderbird Atlatl is our superior customer service. We are extremely receptive to our customers and make ourselves available almost 24/7!

We appreciate our customers’ feedback. If there is a problem, we try to correct it instantly. We are proud of our ability to get orders out as quickly as possible even rush orders. If it means a few late nights at the shop, our staff is willing and able to do that. Give us a call at 800-836-4520 or a cell at 607-743-4379 and we would be glad to help you figure out the best atlatl equipment for you.

We sometimes get calls from people who have ordered from other atlatl manufacturers and were unable to get their items. Please know we have 20 years of exemplary customer service backing our products. Check out some of the comments we have received recently!

“I just wanted to give thanks and props to Bob and Cheryl for great customer service. The USPS managed to bend a tube hard enough to splinter a pack of 6 darts. They promptly and cheerfully reshipped my order and I had them 2 days later. Plus, I like a business where the boss answers the phone. It was an added bonus talking to the legendary Bob Berg.”

Regarding a Kanakadea we sold on Amazon:
“I got these to get started in atlatl. They are great! They are accurate and they fly far and hit hard. I can’t say enough good things about this. The ground where I live is frozen and the darts hit the ground so hard they actually went in a coupel of inches! this is Awesome!”

Regarding a Catatonk we sold on Amazon:
“This design is perfect. I don’t have long fingers and adequately grasping the dart has always been a problem. This Catatonk design fits perfectly. It provides a solid foundation for your hand, allows your index finger to just have to lightly hold in place the dart because its seated on a support trough ahead of your finger. Very stable. You can walk around with a dart in place its so stable. Great atlatl.”

“Love your products! We have had HUNDREDS of youth and adults using your atlatls as part of our programs. By the way, here is a link to a recent TV interview.”

Make Magazine Video showing our Kanakadea Atlatl Kit!

Make Magazine published an article last fall in its Kit issue about our atlatl kits and how they worked. They asked us if they could review the kits last summer for the article. The review appeared in the magazine’s Siege and Ballistics Kits section.

Here’s a You Tube video showing our Kanakadea kit being used. The section about the our atlatl kit starts at about 4:58 if you don’t want to watch the entire video!