There is provided a recoil starter for starting an internal combustion engine which has a simple and compact structure with a reduced number of parts and which can be manufactured at a reduced cost. In a recoil starter wherein a shaft portion 2' having a reel 3' rotatably attached thereto is provided on a starter case 1 and wherein a rope 4 wound around the reel 3' by a restoring force of a spring 5 is drawn out to rotate the reel 3' thereby driving a pulley 31 to start an internal combustion engine, a configuration is employed wherein a frictional resistance means is provided on the shaft portion 2'; one end of an arm 28 assembled with frictional resistance against the rotation of the reel 3' is anchored or press-fitted to the friction resistance means with another end thereof engaged with a guide groove 27 on the reel 3'; and the rotation of the reel 3' causes the other end of the arm 28 to move in the guide groove 27 for a swinging motion which causes the arm 28 to be engaged with a notch 32 on the pulley 31. This allows the number of parts to be reduced to achieve a reduced overall size and allows manufacturing cost to be reduced.
