Welcome to Darts Equipment
Whether you consider darts as a hobby, or doing it as a professional you absolutely have to have your own darts equipment.
Darts equipment includes of the following:
The dartboard
Dartboard also referred as target and it consists out of circle, which is 20 inches in diameter divided on to 20 sectors. Besides those sectors target have the following zones:
- Bulls eye - hitting it will bring the player 50 points;
- Outer Bull – 25 points;
- Double 2x Single – is a small line on the outside of each sector. If a player hit this zone, he will be awarded double the points of the particular sector;
- Treble 3x Single - is a small line inside of the sector. Hitting it will bring a player triple the points of the sector;
Best material which should be used while making the dartboard is a natural rope fiber (sisal). These fibers are compressed under tons of pressure and banded with steel in order for the target to never lose its form. Usually the dartboard is painted in four colors: white, black, green and red. Also a special metal ring is attached to the target with numbers from 1 to 20. These numbers will show the points of each sector. Ring with numbers is attached with clips, to allow easy rotation of worn areas.
The highest quality dart equipment is made by English companies, such as "Unicorn" and "Harrows".
The darts
The most important element of the darts equipment is darts. They have to be individual for each player. The darts consist out of a four main parts. And with time each player finds the right darts for him based on weight, material, quality and a form of the flights. Professional players are using darts made out of tungsten. It is a fairly strong material, which can outlast most of the other dart making materials. Darts made out of tungsten are thinner than other darts of the same weight. Darts usually are chosen based on the way a player prefers to throw them. For example use of the flights which a made out of lighter and thinner material will move center of gravity of the dart to towards the tip. For some players it can be beneficial and for others it is not good.
The best darts are those which can help a player to reach the most results with.
The darts Shafts
The dart shafts can be divided in to four categories.
First category is a plastic shaft. Those are the most affordable shafts. Usually they are made out of polycarbonate or nylon. Some of the plastic shafts have a special tip which a player can replace, and that is done in order to prolong a life of the plastic shaft. The main disadvantage of a plastic shaft is weak durability that usually results in a short life span.
The second category is a composite shaft. They have plastic bases that thread into the dart, combined with aluminum or other metal alloy tops that hold the flight. Because of the combination such shafts have a longer life span and their top parts are very easy to replace.
The third category is aluminum shafts. They are more rigid and durable then plastic and composite shafts. These shafts have a special ability to vibrate during the flight. Aluminum shafts almost never break, they can only bend. However if the shaft was bent it can change the trajectory of a dart.
The forth category of the shafts is spinning. These shafts allow the flight to turn out of the way when struck by another dart. And as a result amount of a torn flights are significantly lower than for the other shaft categories. Also this ability allows for tighter groups by letting the flights align with each other.
The darts flights
Flights are the fins or wings found at the back of a dart. They serve to stabilize the dart during flight and can be divided in to several groups.
Hard flights are made out of stiff polyester plastic. During the making process the layers are permanently sealed together by heat. The main advantage of this type of flights is their durability. If the dart would hit such flight then no damage would occur, most likely the dart will just simply knock the flight. Hard flights can allow tighter groups.
Also there are hard flights which are embossed with a certain texture; such flights can make a dart vibrate during a flight.
The soft flights are made out of flexible plastic. Adhesive (glue) holds the layers of plastic together. If the flight is torn during the game, the layers can be pressed together with fingers and the adhesive will "heal" the tear. Such flights are most affordable.
Nylon flights are made of ripstop nylon fabric. They are by far the most durable type of flight. The stiffness of such flight is roughly midway between Soft and Hard flights.
