Putty Wrap Darts

These are my variation on BK201's technique posted in the pink foam giveaway thread (He called the stuff clay, but very importantly it does not harden). They will not normally feed well through a conventional wye hopper owing to their length, although Ryan's hoppered +bow shoots them perfectly without fail. 

They look like this:

Weight depends on how much putty you use, but all my darts were between 1.0g and 2.0g. They typically fly less straight than slugs, but nowhere near as bad as streamlines. They seem less slowed by air resistance, probably due to their weight. I assume that more symmetrically made darts are more accurate, but I've only really tested the darts I made with scissors.

These are pretty much the softest, safest darts imaginable, and they are astoundingly easy to make. This is why I think they're so great. Make no mistake--the performance is "good enough", not "good". 

Materials:

Foam

Electrical tape (Use a special color if you want to mark your darts)

Non-hardening putty. I use MC #1049A31. Anything that is soft, heavy, and will stay soft and heavy over time works here. So far I've tried this "glazing rope" and ticky-tack (poster mounting gook), but other materials (such as silly putty) will probably work alright.

Start by cutting your blanks however you want. At least 2" is recommended-shorter lengths work better with hoppers, but longer lengths fly straighter. I expect that clean, straight cuts are extra important here because the cut edge is also the dart tip, but I have no testing to back that up.

Twist the blank aggressively to make a permanent and symmetrical kink.

Afterwards it should look something like this. 

Break off some putty. I use about 1/2" of 1/4" diameter cord.

Wrap the putty around the dart, in the groove you made by twisting. Stretching and winding helps to do this symmetrically in my experience.

It should look something like this now--mostly beneath the profile of the groove, so we don't have to use absurdly tight tape.

But I usually do anyways, because I want to be totally sure that there isn't any tape/putty sticking out

Your darts will then look something like this: