Darts-Steel tip or Soft tip

What a great game darts is, a game with friends all around and a glass of beer, convivial conversation, it is a great social sport. But there is that keen competitive edge to it as well, you want to win to prove your prowess, dream you could take on Phil Taylor on that dart board and win.

Well you know the answer to, “how do you get to the Carnegie hall?” Practice, Practice Practice. So what kit do you get, what set of darts could make you into a darts player supreme? Unfortunately, there is no obvious answer, just get a set you are comfortable with and stick with them. You’ll have to try out quite a few darts before you settle on a dart type you like. Try out your friends darts and the darts behind the bar and then get a set and practice on that dart board for as long as you can..

Darts from Amazon

The most common type of dart around these days are the tungsten darts, due to the density of tungsten, tungsten darts can be made smaller and more importantly thinner than traditional brass darts and yet be the same weight for throwing. Also there have been great strides in the type of grip on the darts from smooth to knurled and now the new “edge” grip.

Also, with the advent of the Electronic Dart board, there are now 2 classes of dart, the steel tip dart and now the soft tip dart. The steel tip darts are the traditional style of darts still used in the big darts tournaments, whereas the soft tip darts are the new type of dart with plastic tips that are used on the Electronic dart boards. They are safer to use and usually much lighter. The soft tips are a tad fragile though, make sure you take plenty of spare tips with you when playing the electronic darts game.

As darts grows in popularity, the technology will advance even faster. Bear one thing in mind though, an expensive tungsten darts set will not guarantee to improve your game, but they might just make you feel the part.

Also what throwing action do you use? If you look at the pros, you will see there is as many throwing actions as players. The trick is consistency, and that only comes with practice. I heard from 1 professional player that he throws for doubles at the board when practicing and doesn’t stop until he has been around the board and hitting the double with at least 2 out of 3 darts at every double on the board. Gees if I did that I’d be there for days! So there you go, there is no magic formula for darts, just the boring old get used to the darts you have, and practice practice practice.

Dartboards which Dart Board to go for?

What a choice of dart boards we have these days, my own favourite type is the electronic dart board, no more CHALKING. Its no surprise to me that a lot of these boards are called cricketmaster or some such thing, as it gets rid of the chore of scoring in cricket which is more complicated than the standard 501 game.

But I think that improves things tremendously, as it gets rid of the boring scoring ritual, and makes the game both quicker and more fun. I tried out the arcade style dart board at an exhibition the other day and got completely engrossed, they are much more fun than traditional dartboards especially for cricket.

There is also a home version of the electronic dart board which are almost as good as the expensive ones in the arcades and bars. The drawback? When the dart misses the board or falls out, the tip breaks. Well maybe not every time, but often enough, so make sure when you are using the soft tip darts on these boards, have some spare tips.

However even with the super electronics on the new boards, the bristle dart board is still going strong, not least because it is still used in all the big international competitions. The bristle boards have also improved immensely over the years with much less of the dreaded bounce outs that you used to get thanks to embedded wire in the board and staple less design that most of the boards have these days. I remember feeling cheated when the dart bounced out when I was going for the bull, goodness it was difficult enough without the board throwing your dart back at you as well.

The other type of dartboard still going strong is the paper dart board, most noticeably the “Widdy” dartboard, the original American dart board that has been going since the 1920’s. Mostly used on the east coast of America, it is still being used and you use these really cute fat wooden Widdy darts with genuine turkey feathers with the boards, as steel darts would be a tad heavy for them unless you have some really light ones. These are the original American darts.

The look of the Widdy dart board is different too, see a Widdy dart board picture here. There doesn’t seem to be any treble ring as such on the Widdy. I’ve never played on one but I’d love to try one out one day.

Don't forget the dart board rules, see our dart rules article for information on dart board distance and height regulations.

Dart board Cabinets

Ok so you have your dartboard, do you just hang it naked on the wall or do you get a dart board cabinet. Well if you value your wall, you need a cabinet, the walls soon start to look like it’s had an attack of woodworm especially if you are a beginner at the sport. Besides it looks better as well..

The cabinets can be simple affairs or exotic metal monsters. The type of cabinet you get depends on the board you have. For the bristle dart boards small wooden cabinets will suffice and the choice is extensive. There are various colors available and some of them have fancy designs, like a work of art you hang on the wall and are shaped to look like old style clocks. The other advantage of a dart board cabinet is that they have a scoreboard on the doors when you open them out, and a lot of them have some sort of storage system to put your darts in to keep things neat and tidy..

An Electronic dart board needs a bigger cabinet, as the board is bigger to accommodate the electronics. Again there are some really nice cabinets available from a plain oak cabinet to cabinets with fancy inlays but the main thing is that they are bigger and fit all of the wall mounted electronic dart boards. Some of them go to town and have a drawer as well to put all your darts stuff in. The cabinets come in various colors so you can get one to suit your furniture; they have light, medium and dark colors .So give your games room some class, get yourself a good looking cabinet to put your dart board into and enjoy.