24 gram Bumble Bees

My beautiful wife, whose opinion is invaluable to me, has determined that this is the best possible configuration for these darts. As always, her taste is flawless. And indeed when we still lived in Seattle and we would occasionally go to the bars she would use these darts exactly like this. I have also thrown them so configured and they are surprisingly easy to throw well. My normal opinion of micro shafts is that they belong on really long darts or no where at all, but here they work. These darts I bought from Mueller a few years ago and when I bought them they were called 20/20's. These days you see them around the net as "Chunky Stubbies". I think of them as my Bumble Bees. I do not throw these very often and that is partly because I used to think that they are so hard to configure well. They need either a really long stem or a short aluminum stem, and require a standard sized flight. Since then however, I have learned how to throw a small flighted dart. I think I'll give these another run.

Points: Fixed
Barrels: 24 gram 20/20's
Stems: Micro Aluminum
Flights: Smooth Mini Polys

23 gram Unicorn Hustlers

Another dart received from SLEEPYKRAMER of SEWA. These are nice looking brass bombers from 1988 or 1989 from unicorn. The stem threading is 2BA, although the dart gets so wide at the nose that it offers the illusion of having a skinnier waist than it actually does. They throw quite well.

23 gram DynaDags

23 gram Warriors

I traded these to a guy in England for some copper tungsten darts. On the whole it was a good trade. while these are very unique and unusual darts I never threw them.

23 gram County Corks

22 gram Harrows Dimplex

22 gram Colin Llyod Latinums

22 gram Mega Thrusts

22 gram Vectors

The top configuration is best. It angles normally when it enter the board. The bottom picture in which the darts are still ADM equiped is still pretty good, but it angles down quite a bit when it enters the board.

It is worth noting, although I like the top config better, I have never ton-80'd with that config, whereas I have logged two ton-80's with the bottom one!!

Update: I sold these darts on eBay in May 2011.

22 gram Halex Tungstens

21 Gram Unknowns

These are darts that I received in the mail from Bilbo of SEWA. Bilbo has a huge collection of darts that at one point he had posted online for all to see but the last time I visited that link you needed an account to view the photos. I saw this set in the collection and they looked interesting to me so I asked him about them and what do you know? He sent them to me! In return I sent him some old Unicorn darts complete with packaging which I hope he dug. These particular arrows are short, light, and an all around fine dart.

Update: I cannot find these darts. I must have left them in a bar or at a friends house or something.

21 gram Harrows Magnum

97% tungsten. Awesome darts. I used to have these in 23 grams but decided o go lighter.

21 gram Unicorn Brass

21 gram Rhinos

21 gram Raptors

21 gram Steve Cootes

20 gram Halex Tungstens

20 gram Puma Kings

These are pretty good darts on the whole. I am sort of on the lick lately of finding high percentage tungsten darts in the lower weights and when I got these I really liked them although I do not throw them that much anymore. There's just something odd about the groove placement that does not jive completely with my grip.

20 gram Accudart 501's

20 gram Nickel-Silvers

19 gram Harrows Tigers

19 gram Hawkeyes

I call them Hawkeye's because they are Black & Gold. I am pretty sure they are Halex darts but I do not know what they are called model wise because I could never find them again in the store and I am pretty sure Halex is not in the habit of giving distinctive names to their darts (at least in the past). At any rate, I bought these in my soft tip days. I went through a pretty rough bounce out period and I figured it was because my darts were too light. So I went and bought these and the bounce outs kept right on at their regular pace. As it turns out I solved the bounce out problem by throwing steel darts at bristle boards instead of plastic darts at plastic boards. Now bounce out are very rare. Here is the break down of them as pictured:

Points: Fixed Conversions
Barrels: 19 gram Halex Brass
Stems: Short Dynastar Aluminum
Flights: Black Dynastar Kite

18 gram Halex Brass Cheapies

18 gram Kort Haus Mavericks

These darts served my extremely well last season. They are really kick ass darts and I think I'll hang onto them for a while. The story of how I got them is pretty good. Be careful though I am a revisionist sometimes without looking. One night last season (this would have been the Fall 2008 season) I wandered into the Kort Haus for a match against one of their teams. I noticed that above the door Ed (the proprietor) had hanging a glass display case of darts stuff in it. So I drug a chair over to the door, stood on it, and peered into the case. I saw them sitting in the back, lonely and covered with dust. I asked Ed how much he wanted for them. He said he couldn't let them go for fewer than 45 dollars. I offered 30. He said he couldn't do it so I said okay and continued with the match. A few hours later when the match was over I asked him if he wanted to sell the darts or if he was content to let them sit up in that case for another decade and he said he just couldn't do 30 bucks. I offered 35. He said okay. One of the best purchases I ever made.

18 gram Wazza Customs

These are nice darts. The front end will need a little work to get the conversion points smooth but beyond that they are nice little darts.

17 gram Red Dragon Featherlights

17 gram Chrome Plated Brass Darts

These darts are probably old Unicorn darts. I know they weight a mere 17 grams, and I know they are fixed point but beyond that I am not sure. They are a little ugly but they have a surprisingly good feel to them when thrown. I like them on the whole but I would never use them in league. They are very smooth, with the faintest whispers of rings mid-barrel. These are also my only darts that require a 1/4" threaded stem. Here is the break down of them as pictured:

Points: Fixed
Barrels: 17 gram mystery
Stems: Short 1/4" Aluminum
Flights: Smooth Standard Poly

17 gram Silversofts

These are 17 gram Silversofts by Halex. Sold as a soft tip dart (and weighted for one) these darts have a lot of potential for mixing and matching stems and points, etc. The barrel is so long though that it is difficult to find shafts that work well with it. Mediums are out of the question and even in-between is a bit long for these. However, any short, extra short, or even micro shafts will work just fine with them. One problem they have is that after a couple of hours of play they are hard to throw because the barrels get slippery. This is the only semi-smooth barrel I have that has this problem. Even the GT's do not get this way and they have no texture either. Here is the break down of them as pictured:

Points: Jeff Pickup MPs
Barrels: 17 gram Silversofts
Stems: Short Dynastar Nylon
Flights: Black Dynastar Pear

16 gram Dum Dums

16 gram Radarts

These are my favorite lightweight darts and almost my favorite darts overall. They have such a terrific feel to them and they are perfectly balanced for 16 grams. They are called Radarts by DMI and when I bought them I was a soft tip player and they of course were sold to me as soft tip darts. But they wear "fancy" conversions these days since I use them in steel tip play. These darts have seen some good throws. I hit my first ever deadeye with them and I have ton-80'd with them. I used them almost exclusively during my first year in the Pittsburgh Steel tip leagues to pretty good effect. Here is the break down of them as pictured:

Points: Fancy Fixed Conversions
Barrels: 16 gram Radarts
Stems: Short Aluminum
Flights: Black Poly Pear

16 gram GT3s

These are the 16 gram version of the popular GT3 line from Bottelsen. These are the "Black" version which is just a coating that eventually wears off. They do not throw as well as I would like them to, and certainly not as well as my other 16 gram darts. The other 16 grammers throw so well that I began to believe that 16 grams was the perfect weight for me and so I sought out that weight in my favorite dart style. Turns out the grammage is only one aspect of the "feel" of a dart and not all weights feel the same. I doubt these puppies will get much use but you never know. Here is the break down of them as pictured:

Points: Hammerhead Spinpactor
Barrels: 16 gram Black GT3's
Stems: Medium Black GT Screw-in
Flights: Black Poly Pear

Update: These were sold to RodmanRodman in may 2011.

15 gram Featherlights

These are 15 gram Featherlights by Nodor. They are the lightest fixed point steel tip dart I have and at the time I bought them they were the lightest I'd ever heard of. Although now I am certainly aware that lighter fixed point darts exist, and in this very line they have a 14 gram Featherlight. These are pretty good darts on the whole but I do not throw them very often. They are a short 41 mm long and are one of the few darts I have that can take a medium length shaft effectively. Here is the break down of them as pictured:

Points: Fixed
Barrels: 15 gram Featherlights
Stems: Medium Spiraline (nylon)
Flights: Standard Dimplex

14 gram Reds

I have no idea who made these darts and I have no idea when they were made either. I call them 'Reds' simply as a descriptor and that is how I have coem to think of them. I bought them when I was in college because I always thought the darts in the Deadwood were garbage, which is true. I used to carry these around with me "just in case". Then after college these darts spent a long time in my glovebox waiting to be taken out and thrown. They had always worn soft tips until the last year or so when I bought some 1/4" threaded conversion tips for them. One very interesting thing about these darts is that they are threaded 1/4" on one side but 2BA on the other, so you can use either size tips or stems but not both if you know what I mean. They are 14 grams. Here is the break down of them as pictured:

Points: Fixed Conversion 1/4" thread
Barrels: 14 gram Mystery Darts
Stems: Hammerhead brand spinners
Flights: Slim Dimplex

13 Gram Wooden Darts

12 gram Crown Jewels

These are 12 gram Crown Jewels by Harrows. They are very good darts with a terrific feel when throwing them. When I get on a tear I can really chew up the board with them. I bought these right near the end of my soft tip days and I never thought about putting conversions on them until a year later so these darts were largely unused until I "rediscovered" them in my collection. These are really light and make for a nice change of pace. Everyone should have at least one set of sub-16 gram darts IMO. Here is the break down of them as pictured:

Points: Fixed Conversion
Barrels: Harrows 12g Crown Jewels
Stems: Short Aluminum
Flights: Slim

10 gram Unicorn Bantam's

Quite the rare dart.

10 gram Slick Willies

I don't know why I think of these as 'Slick Willies' other than that their texture is surprisingly slippery despite the light knurling they have on them. I do not know their official model name or whatever so I just think of them as 'Slicks.' I am pretty sure they are Halex darts and I am pretty sure they are the throw-away cheapo darts that are included for free when you buy an electronic board from Halex. They only weigh 10 grams and were originally soft tip darts but since I do not throw soft tip anymore all my old soft tippers now wear conversions of some sort. Here is the break down of them as pictured:

Points: Hammerhead
Barrels: Halex 10g light knurled
Stems: Top Spin short
Flights: Slim Dimplex

I almost never throw these darts but when I do I make sure to keep the session short. They are so light it is hard to control them especially when you are used to throwing in the low twenties range.

7 gram Unicorn Extralites

*** gram Accudart Variants

Misfits

The List

Hm. I cannot believe I have never made a complete list of my darts.

1. 28g GT's black
2. Radarts
3. Cootes
4. Ringed Taylors
5. Nodors
6. Mavericks
7. Great Whites
8. Crossfires
9. STT-900's
10. Scoundrels
11. Power Points
12. Pirhanas
13. KC's
14. Dart Freaks
15. Dagnabits
16. Bombs
17. 20/20's
18. Warriors
19. County Corks
20. FP Megathrusts
21. Orion Vector Smart Darts
22. 22g Halex Tungstens
23. 21g Unicorn Brass "Fatties"
24. Rhinos
25. Raptors

~~~~ Initial Division ~~~~

26. 27g Axis
27. GT2's
28. Halex Nickel-Silvers
29. "Hawkeyes"
30. Throw-Aways (x2)
31. 17g Silversofts
32. Black Widows
33. 16g GT3's
34. Featherlights
35. Red's
36. Wooden (x2)
37. Crown Jewels
38. Slick Willies
39. Halex Brass (x3)
40. 20g Halex Tungstens
41. Extralights
42. Unicorn 136's (Hexagonal Brass darts)
43. Variants
44. DynaDags
45. 30g Hammerhead Originals
46. 501's
47. 301's
48. MP Megathrusts
49. 40g Unicorn Brass darts
50. Cane shaft Dum Dums
51. Mismatched Toy darts
52. 19g Harrows Tigers (not received yet)
53. 23g Unicorn John Part Latinums (not received yet)
54. New World Brass Sleeved Tungsten darts. Rare.

Fairway Darts

I found this board on ebay and managed to win it uncontested for ten dollars. Probably the best deal I have ever seen for a dartboard. The board itself is a sisal board and as we all know, unique and rare sisal boards are nice to find. Paper wound unusual boards are a dime a dozen as are many of the American made wooden dartboards. But since a sisal dartboard is so much more difficult to make than a wooden board (the process and materials I mean), and so much more expensive than a paper wound board, there are fewer of them.

Fairway darts is the third golf related board I have purchased for my collection. It isn't as well known as the Par-Darts board (I had never seen it before) and not as complete or pretty as the Club House Golf board but it is still a nice high quality board. I have scoured the internet looking for mention of this board and I have not seen a single reference anywhere. Not a mention in any google page or dartboard collection page. This is good from a collector's perspective because that makes it rare, but it is bad because I have no idea who made it, and no idea what the rules for the game are.

So here is a call for help: anyone with any information on this board, the maker, the era, or the rules, please let me know. Thanks!

Club House Golf

What a great find. This is one of the more interesting bristle boards I have ever seen, and I bought it in brand new condition. Any holes in the board are made by me and the ultra-light apex style darts that came with the board. My buddy Barn and I staarted throwing a game on it but it was so hard to hit the fairways and holes that we had to quit for dinner. You can really see the biscuits in the board, and I would say not very many tons of pressure went into making the board itself as the darts, even the light ones, slide into the board with minimal effort. This makes me think the board would get chewed up quickly so I will not play on it too much.


The score boards are a sort of black plexiglass with white writing on them and seem to be set up for a very particular sort of golf game. There were no rules sent with the board so I am not real sure what the exact rules are but probably they are similar to real golf. The board also came with one of those white wax markers for keeping score on the black plexiglass. Pretty clever and nice looking set up.


The Board also came with six ultra-light Apex darts. They only weight XX grams. I think these were included so the board would last a bit longer. The sisal fibers are so loose that if you were to throw your average 26 gram MP dart the board would be destroyed in short order!!


One thing I really like about this board is the attention to detail and fine craftsmanship. There are some extras that they didn't really have to include in the building of it such as the sign on top the cabinet, the little golf flag, the green material behind the board, etc. Very nicely done! Here is a good view of the overall effect:

Par-Darts

This is a very nice board that looks like it is in virtally brand new condition. Right now it is at the house of a friend in Seattle and I am looking forward to playing on it. It looks like it would be at the very least an excellent practice board, but I bet the whole game is going to be every bit as fun as a regular darts game. This is my first non-clockface board other than the baseball board below. It is certainly my first bristle non-standard board. At some point I am going to figure out how to replace those wires stapled onto the board with embedded blade-like separaters.

Click here for the rules for Par-Darts.

Unicorn Eclipse

This is another of the Bladed boards offered by the various board makers. The bladed versions are almost always the "High-End" offering, and this one in particular is a pretty good board. This was a Christmas gift from my beloved in 2005.

DMI Bandit

I like this board for a lot of reasons. First and formost because it reminds me of all the good times I had shooting darts in Seattle, in league as well as with my friends. But also because it is a quality board.

[From a comment I left on a different blog entry:]

I remember the first time I'd ever seen a Bandit board. The bar owner of the bar I played for in Seattle is a Dart Afficinado just like me. He has four really nice areas in his bar for playing steel tip darts and he always hung good boards back when I played for him. And in those days, during one season he hung Bandits. Brand new, bright white blades and numbers. I knew I had to have one right away. Now this is not the first time I'd ever seen a _bladed_ board, mind you. I had bought a fully bladed Sportcraft board for use at work which was a terrific terrific board, and on which I gotten many compliments. But it did not have the shiny white appeal that the Bandit had.

After one season of play on the Bandits he decided to take them down and replace them with Nodor Supawires. He had gotten too many complaints from league members that the darts were just "falling out" of the Bandits. So one day me and my good buddy Barn wandered into Coopers for a night of play and we saw the Bandits in the corner labeled $15. We both bought one immediately. This was a good three years ago or more. I played on it constantly since then up until just a few months ago when I got a new Unicorn Eclipse for this last Xmas. In all those years of heavy play at home, the Bandit performed beautifully. It is pretty beat up now but it is still, in its current state, a better board than many brand new ones. The only reason I retired it at all was so I could hang the Eclipse (also a completely awesome board!!!).

To this day I have never once had a dart just fall out of the Bandit. And I have a medium throw at best in terms of hardness. I have thrown darts at it of many weights from 10 grams to 28 grams. So I cannot imagine how people would have to throw for their darts to just fall out.

Paper-wound Baseball Board

This would be the first board I ever bought and I bought it before I had any clue whatsoever what to look for in a board. As it turns out paper wound dart boards are lower quality, and they are not a good option for the serious darter. Perhaps if you are looking to get a new person into darts, with not much money, you can pick one of these up on ebay for a dollar, but other than introducing steel tip darts to your friends, I would not recommend paper wound boards.

The fun thing is, though the game itself. This is the only non-clock board I have and the idea is intriguing even if I am not sure what the rules are. I have devised make shift rules while playing this with my wife but the rules were clumsy at best. One of these days I am going to track down the official rules for this game.

I found them! Click here for the rules to Baseball Darts. Reprinted here:

BASEBALL DART GAME (STANDARD GAME)

1. The player throwing is the pitcher attempting to retire the opposing side without allowing runs. This can best be achieved by carefully pitching at the corners of the plate. Put the pitch over the center of the plate and it's a home run.
2. Two players or teams can participate. Each team member takes a turn pitching his team's half of an inning.
3. Each inning is divided into two halves: one for each team. Three outs constitute one-half of an inning. First pitcher is allowed as many pitches as is necessary to get three outs. All runs scored against him are credited to the other team. When he has made three outs the other player pitches his half of the inning.
4. Usual rules of baseball apply. Three "strikes" for an "out". A "foul ball" counts as a "strike" but not as a third strike. Any pitch that misses the "plate" (target zone) is ruled a "ball". Four balls to a batter constitute a "walk" and the batter is awarded first base.
5. Runs are scored by players rounding the basses and crossing home plate. Runs must be forced over to score.
6. At the conclusion of the regulation number of innings, the team with the most runs is the winner.

Missing Boards

These are boards that I do not have but that I would certainly like to eventually own:

Regular Clock Face boards of various types:
1. Champion's Board (narrow rings - most board makers offer one of these)
2. Harrows Marathon (I am not of the significance of this board)
3. Harrows Zone Magnet (again, I am not sure of the significance)

Clock Face boards, but slightly unusual:
4. Narrow Fives
5. Wide Fives
6. Black Irish

Boards that non-standard:
7. Old Fayre
8. Remarkabull
9. Eric Bristow's 501 Trainer

Acquired but not yet received:
1. Yorkshire
2. Clay Dartboard
3. Winmau Equalizer
4. American Wooden Board

Received but not yet Blogged:
1. Harrows Quadro
2. Unicorn Eclipse Pro
3. Dartoball
4. Blade MX
5. Winmau Casino 301
6. Blue Euro Board