26 Gram Fixed Point CT's

I call these CT's. They are not MP darts and they were made especially for me and are thus a unique one of a kind set.



The points are a little short for my taste so I may end up replacing the points (but to be fair I did ask for short points).



As you can see they are similar in shape and appearance to my 28 gram GT's.




These three darts are all made from 75% Copper Tungsten. The middle one I have had for about a year. The other two are brand new. The material darkens as it ages.

Thinning Out the Herd

I would be very happy if I could get my collection down to about 36 to 48 sets of darts. really this should not be too difficult considering that I have several sets of darts that I simply do not like and several other sets that I like well enough but feel no special attachment to, and which I never throw. The set below belongs to the later group. They are really good darts with an excellent grip but I never really throw them anymore. When I used to use them more I would dress them in hammerhead points and slim flights and they perform very nicely. the depressions in the barrel for the fingers are amazingly well thought out. The other night my buddy Byron came over and I used these guys and hit several low tons. I was happy. I'd also forgotten how well I like those spiraline flights!


In the above photo you can see the points that I currently have on them. They are ordinary plain (but oddly sharp) conversion points and their sole function is to help the dart stick in a bristle board. Not very aesthetically pleasing but that is not really a requirement (okay I don't really believe that). The flights are amazing although I freely admit that these days I use mostly plain slim flights. They have a lot of drag but that is compensated by how true they fly.

I think I'll throw some hammerhead points on them this week and reminisce a little bit before they gat bought up on ebay. If they get bought that is. This is my first bay offering and they is no garantee that they will be bought.

23rd Maximum

Here it is, like so many others it came while I was on the phone chatting away:

Nice Barrel Design from Jeff Pickup

This pic was included in a set of pictures Jeff sent me regarding the streamlined MP system. I just happened to notice the nice barrel design of this dart. It looks like an nice alternative to the typical "ultra-grip" barrel designs that focus on large knurls.


Like what you see? Email Jeff and ask about prices!

Offered for Trade

22 gram Unicorn Latinum Colin Lloyds - The entire package that you see is what is included. The darts themselves, in good condition, the stems currently attached to the darts, the flights that you see, the flight protector ring, none of which have been used, and the case.



The case was damaged in shipping to me but through a complicated exercise involving super glue and scotch tape I have managed to repair it, more or less.



I prefer to trade for something unique or interesting. I like copper tungsten darts, I like old Bottelsen offerings, I like old old Unicorn offerings, etc. I would even consider trading for non-latinum Lloyds. I prefer not to sell darts. I'd rather replace them with something interesting.

5 Count with Penetrators

This 5 count in the bulls came at the very tail end of another round of the PaulWilliamsDarts.co.uk April Challenge. The first dart hit the double bull (which was the 133rd dart in the the challenge) and I tossed the other two for tossing's sake. They landed well.

Super Streamlined Pickup Points

These are some photos that Jeff had sent me a while back that I never had the chance to put up on the blog. They are of his new MP design that does two things: First, it makes the o-ring more optional that it was before as you had to really dig in his old points to fish out the embedded o-ring, and Second, lathing down the collar to match your darts makes the MP dart close in weight length and balance to an FP dart. Take a look at the photo below. As you can see the collar is extremely small and it does not consist of enough material to house an internal o-ring groove. Secondly, if you want a more free moving point you can completely omit the o-ring entirely by sliding it off the back of the point.



Here is what the MP system looks like on the dart. In this picture the collar has been gently lathed smooth to the barrel. It looks quite nice.


Like what you see? Email Jeff and ask about prices!

Ozzie Doubles Trick

Well, not exactly 'Ozzie' but I was using the new darts I got in trade from Wazza, who is a darter friend from Down under and who posts to this blog occasionally. A doubles trick, for those of you who do not know, is when you hit all three doubles you are aiming at in the same round. This particular DT occurred in the thirteenth round of the April Challenge, and I was aiming at the 2, the 1 and the 20 in that order:


The darts are actually quite nice. They are short, probably 41 mm long, and have a nice feel to them with ample ringage and just a hint of taper. They are 18 grams and were designed for soft tip usage. Since I did not already have some 18 gram steel tip darts that I liked a lot I thought it would be a nice trade (and a nice trade it was!). One down side to them is that the threading is a little too tight. I cannot get steel conversion points in them all the way. This is fixable, however.

The darts themselves:


They are dressed in short spiraline stems and coal cracker dimplex flights. The practice routine I was doing is quite a good one for doubles practice and is a challenge posted over at Paul William's forum. The idea is simple: count how many darts it takes you to hit all of the doubles, including the double bull, and then post your results to compare with others. And of course try to beat your score!! Here is a link to the forum, the April Challenge is in the Dart Chat area:

http://mistadouble.proboards31.com/index.cgi

Have fun!!

Sleepy Darts

Not really, there is nothing to yawn about here!! In fact I have recently engaged in two different dart trading episodes with members of SEWA. One trade was with a gentleman down under, and the other with SLEEPYKRAMER.

SLEEPYKRAMER is a woman from California who seems to have a long history with darts. Her husband was some hot shot with his own signature dart line through Bottelsen. Anyway, many kudos and many thanks to SleepyK as she has sent me some really nice darts in exchange for some 23 gram John Part Latinums which I won in the SEWA trivia contest.


The Latties (as I call the JP Latinums) are really nice darts. However, since I am unlikely to use them very often they would just sit in my collection collecting dust. I did not want this to happen so to recycle them back into the SEWA family I decided to trade them away. Of all the offers that came in I liked what SleepyK had to offer the best. Here is what I got:

25 gram Accudart GF Penetrators:


23 gram Unicorn Hustlers:


The Penetrators are really interesting darts. Their tips appear to be steel but upon closer examination you can see they are not. They are actually Carbon Fiber. They flex a bit, and the will supposedly split if the hit a wire instead of bouncing out. Accudart has always made high quality darts and it is a real shame that they are no longer making all the steel tip darts they used to. They were a truly innovative company.

The Hustlers are interesting too. Brass bodies that give the false appearance of a skinny waist. They are 2BA threaded like most darts, but they are so wide near the nose that they have a GT-esk quality to them.

26 gram Accudart Unknowns

There are a few reasons why I know these are Accudarts. First, the stems that they came with appear proprietary and say "Accudart" on them. This combination nails it. Also, They came in an Accudart case. Last but not least, the collar of the moving point is extremely similar in design to the collars of the Accudart Penetrators that I have, although these move back and forth in the dart as well as spin. I am 99.9% certain that these are Accudart darts, I just do not know what model name belongs to it, or what "Line" it comes from.

This is a very skinny waisted dart and may have been Accudart's answer to the GT from Bottelsen. The thread size on the stem is a bit bigger than that of the GT but very very close. The GT scew in stems work on these darts. They are a bit loose but they do screw in tight enough that they will not come loose. However, the stems that come with these darts are just a hair too big to fit in the GT's. Additionally, their relatively small size compared to their 26 gram weight makes me think this is a 95% tungsten dart. This is not unreasonable given that the Penetrator line were also 95%.

Anyone with information regarding these darts, please let me know. Thanks!

First Ton-80 with Winter Line Up (22 Total)

This is the first maximum I have hit with my new winter league darts. I have three new sets of darts that I will be using in the new league I joined and they are all unified in stems and flights. More on that later. In the meantime, here is my 22nd lifetime ton-80.


The config: 22 gram fixed point Harrows Dimplex barrels with short Ti (titanium) stems from Unicorn and slim "Rising Sun" flights.

Twenty One and Counting

Here is my 21st Maximum:



The set up: 24 gram Pirhana II's with short black aluminum stems and poly slims. Cheers.

Dart Collections Online

Just wanted to bring your attention to a few different dart collections I have seen out there. The first collection belongs to Juergen who is a frequent commenter on this blog (and who also keeps track of his maximums). He has some really stunning darts and he apparently has quite a good camera. As you can see from his collection, too, he has a tendency to stick with the basic barrel designs that work for him, whereas I do not. Which may be why he has 115 Ton-80's this year and I only have 20!! Click the picture below to go to his page:



The other collection belongs to a darts enthusiast who also has quite a good board collection as well. In fact his dartboard collection is surely the envy of every dart collector out there with the possible exceptions of Christian and Beni Petris. However, this post is about dart collections so I will not link to his boards just yet. Alan has a really nice collection of antique darts, unusual darts as well as the occasional modern dart that he throws in competition. Again, click on the picture to go to his collection:

A Brave New World

These darts are my newest addition and I got them in a trade with crashfromboston. I sent him my 27 gram GT3's and he sent me these. Unlike my temporary exchange with mcvickj, however, this is a permanent trade. I encouraged him many times to consider carefully if he really wanted to make the trade as these darts seem to be a bit rare and definitely unique but he pushed for the trade and assured me that if he ever wanted to have some New World Darts back in his collection he knew where he could get some. So HURRAY!! I love my new darts!


Seen above are the darts in my Initial Preferred Configuration. They came with some longer stems and a triangular tube of other bits and pieces but I like my Dynastuff so I decided to go with these first. I might play around a bit with them before I settle into a config though. The throw a bit awkward to be honest but I think for people who grip a dart more forward on the barrel than I do they would do quite well. They have that mid barrel depression that invites a couple of fingers but I cannot grip a dart like that comfortably so I have my index finger and thumb on the back flutage and my middle finger on the forward flutage. This is how I grip all darts though despite my many different barrel styles.

The story of these darts is a good one and I hope I get it right. And if I do not I hope crash logs in and leaves some comments to correct my version of these unique darts. Apparently there was a guy in Massachusetts who wanted to start a dart making company and called it New World Dart Co. as seen in the label below. He attempted to patent many of his ideas but met with little success as the many of his ideas have been already patented by other entities. But his ideas were definitely unique and I have never ever seen any darts like these before. The label you see below is on the front of the large case that darts came in.


As you can see from the picture below the darts are designed with a brass outer sleeve that have 2ba threading on the stem end and different threading up front. The point is attached to a tungsten insert that slides into the brass sleeve and then screws into place. Oddly, though he did not make this 2ba. Nor is it 1/4" threading. If he had made the forward threading either of these sizes he could have made this a convertible dart. A light brass soft tip dart or, a steel tip dart with a tungsten insert to make it just a little bit heavier for steel tip play. Unfortunately this is not the case and so the darts are a fixed 22 grams and steel tip only. I am willing to bet that if his fledgling company had survived the first frost he would have eventually adapted his design to accommodate both dart worlds. The key you see below, is an old Ford truck key he converted to a point chuck. Very inventive!


Seen below is the original configuration of the darts as they came to me. I have no idea how they were sold new or even how much they cost. But the medium stems are hard to use for most barrels. Only the shortest barrels can take a medium stem and I have never seen a good occasion to use a long stem. Thus, I did not keep this config.



The case is huge for a single set of darts and yet it is another instance of the creativity that went into his whole enterprise. It is a converted gun case. He cut the foam to take the three fully assembled darts, extra flight and stem combos and then there are holes for stems only, a long triangular tube. some slots for some unopened flights, and the place where he put the ford key-chuck. I of course will preserve this as is with all of the contents because it is now a piece of darting history. But the darts themselves, will likely live in a little wooden stand near my dartboard for casual throwing.

All in all I am very happy with this trade and I wish I could make similar trades with some of the darts I have that I do not like as much. That was not my feeling with the GT3's though. Those GT3's really held a very special place in my heart as they were purchased used, and modified by Jeff Pickup to take a screw in stem. I really liked those GT3's. Also, they threw extremely well. I never ton-80'd with them but I have lots of good games with them all the same.

Dardi, chiunque?

Wow. Dart blogs are popping up all over the internet and the latest look about reveals a few that I would like to point out for everyone's benefit. "Dardi, chiunque?", according to my very good friend Google Translation, means "Darts, anyone?" in Italian... Yep you guessed it: time to brush up on your Italian reading skills so you can enjoy the following dart blog:


This blog, as soon as I saw it went straight to the top of my dart blogs bookmarks. Looks like this blogger posts some really good content including some videos. I look forward to similar quality content in the future. The only catch is that I do not speak Italian. But I speak Spanish, so I am confident that I can pick up written Italian in no time at all. After all, I already know the subject matter, right?

First SEWA Ton-80: 20th Lifetime

This is the first Ton-80 I have hit with any darts wearing my new Team SEWA flights (and my 20th lifetime maximum to date). For give the funky camera angle I wanted to make sure the Team SEWA flights were prominently displayed. It really is the 20 bed and not the 12 bed:


I am quite happy about it. The story of how I got the Team SEWA flights is a nice one too, but is best reserved for a future post. Cheers!

Nineteen's a Pretty Number

Or maybe it's just the darts that are pretty. I hit Ton-40's galore this last week while I was visiting Seattle, more than I remember ever hitting in a single week. I wish I'd kept count. Monday through Friday I was using my friend's darts and was doing well no matter what I was throwing. But it wasn't until I was back home that I hit my nineteenth ton-80:


These darts are 30 gram Bottelsen Original Hammerheads. I bought them mid way through a Luck from a bar owner in Seattle and unfortunately didn't win a single game after that! What was I thinking??? This is what I was thinking: Once I picked them up I immediately threw a Ton-40. Then another. Then I told the bar owner I would buy them (committed) and I threw three more Ton-40's while we were waiting for the other half of the luck to finish up their games. It was like I couldn't miss.

I don't know where my ton-plus scores went after the luck entered the final-four stage (we ended up taking fourth) but the darts seems to still be working for me. When I was evaluating the darts, I knew immediately what they were model-wise. After all I've seen the Hammerhead originals on the internet hundreds of times and I knew I liked Hammerhead darts and I think Bottelsen is a terrific dart maker. I casually glanced at the model number and saw it started with 23... which means the darts were supposed to be 23 grams. Since this put them within my acceptable grammage I decided that maybe I would buy them. When I got home I found that they were 30 grams! Whoa! Wait a minute. I have firmly believed for some time now that anything over 24 grams was not likely to provide sustainable performance but here I am throwing my 19th lifetime Ton-80 with a whopping 30 gram set of darts.

Whodathunkit? So 19 is definitely a pretty number. Here's a thought: perhaps it is good I did not count my ton-40's in Seattle. This way I can assume I tossed 19 of them.

DynaDag Reconfiguration

After a couple of weeks of playing with the DynaDags and have mostly mediocre success, I have decided to make a few changes to them. I have swapped out the really long points Jeff Pickup put on them with some really short ones I bought a while back from somewhere online. I then put on some longer Proline stems and changed from the Pear shaped flights to the slightly smaller Slim Flights, otherwise known as "Coal Cracker". Check them out:


I had had some minor success with the other config as well but I think the longer points and the shorter stems reduced the forward weightedness of the dart too much. I found myself lobbing the darts instead pushing them and they started ending up with a high up angle in the board. Despite all the talk of the longer points benefiting the hitting of the triple ring I think I prefer shorter points for my tapered darts. I shall test that, anyway, in the weeks to come. If I change my mind I can always pout different points in them as that is easy to do.

Keyless Conversion

No, that's not an SSH option.


Rather, it is a method of converting your MP darts to FP without anyone being the wiser.

The DynaDag

My newest creation, implemented by the talented Jeff Pickup in Canada's Ontario Province, is officially dubbed the DynaDag. "Dyna" because it was designed for exclusive use with Dynastar flights, and "Dag" because it is a member of the Dagnabit family of darts.


Here they are pictured with the short Proline stems and red pear shaped Dynastar flights. The points are longer than I normally wear them and I am considering swapping them out for some short points but I wanted to give these a go for a few league nights to see how they perform. There is a lot of talk on the forums about longer points and how they can help you squeeze more darts into the trebles (as if I need help with that! Sheesh!).

The barrels themselves are 75% Copper Tungsten which took a long time for Jeff to get but was well worth it. The lower tungsten percentage allows for a fuller body without making the dart too heavy. It is completely smooth with just a friction-fit hole to take a fixed point and a tiny threaded hole designed for the Proline stems. The Barrel is 2" long and 9/32" wide at its widest point.

The stems you can buy anywhere but I got them from www.a-zdarts.com, which is where I buy most of my darts supplies. They are designed for Pro-Line's line of soft tip darts but they sell 2ba adapters for them as well. The flights are Dynastar, and you can get those absoultely anywhere. I hope the new owners of the line do not do anything bad with them, if so I will have to stock up!!