Tony Warne asked:
Nobody knows when the first dartboard was made, but early boards were made from log ends of elm. Some were made from plastacine and had to be smoothed after each leg played with a hot iron.
Today’s boards are made of sisal fibre which are the strands from a cactus of the Sisalana family. These boards were called “Bristle boards “, which has nothing to do with pigs bristle, that was a nickname given to them in the early days.
The first bristle boards were made by an English company called Nodor, which by the way come from the words “No Odor” because the plastacine board gave off a terrible smell, when smoothed using the hot iron.
Nodor boards are still made by the same company, and hold the original patent. One thing for sure nobody has more experience of making dartboards. They are by far the largest of the competition dartboard manufacturers.
The actual manufacture is done in the following manner.
The leaves of the sisal plant are harvested and stripped of there exterior skin. Then the leaves are squeezed free of their natural liquids and the fibres combed.
These metre long strands of fibre are then put into the sun to dry naturally. These processes are carried out close to the fields were the leaves are gathered. The sisal plantations are usually in Africa, but there are others in parts of china and South America.
The first thing that is done to the sisal when being made into a dartboard is as follows:
The sisal strands are put into a graded combing machine, which has several stages. It is then pulled through a second machine, which rolls the sisal like a never-ending cigarette.
This roll which is about 5 inches in diameter is then sliced across into what is known as biscuits. These biscuits are about 1 inch thick and are very even.
The next operation is to press the board. This is done on a flat bed press, which is oval in shape. Inside this press is placed the bands of steel the surround the board.
Then inside the bands the sisal biscuits are placed, the number of biscuits controls the hardness or softness of the finished product.
The next stage is to cover the biscuits in glue and place on the wooden backboard. When this is done the press is activated and compresses the sisal until it is perfectly round.
The glue used has a very fast cueing rate and it can be removed from the press immediately so the next one can be made.
The board is then put through a wide belt sander to level and remove any loose strands of sisal. This treatment also make the surface very smooth so that the next operation, which is to screen print the colours, gives the board a nice clean image.
The final operation is to wire the board into its different sections, and fit the number ring.
Up to only a few years ago the wire used has always been 1.6 mm spring steel for the whole wire system. Now many manufactures use thin blades for all or part of the wire system, which prevents many of the bouncing darts that was common on the original wiring method.
One of the first to use this method was Alana Darts which registered the blade interlocking system with a patent lawyer on the 31st May 1991. The provisional number issued by the Australian Patent, Trade Marks and Designs Offices was P2370.
Unfortunately the patent was dropped due to the huge costs involved.
The Original method of using round wires only did have one very good advantage. That was the bristles in the board allowed the dart easy *********** by moving out of the way of the point, while still being firm enough to grip the dart well.
This gave the board a very long life as little damage was caused to the bristles.
The all-bladed board also had its own advantages; few bouncing darts, higher scores, and higher averages. Also they looked better than the cluttered up round wire system.Its draw back however is that the bristles cannot move as they are locked in position by the blades. This means that when a dart strikes the point can push in several bristle fibres on entry. The result is what is called in the business compacting.
This is where the sisal is doubled up into the board and hard spots develop, in turn making the surface appear fluffy. The result is a shorter life, although the good has to be weighed up against the bad.
In saying this I must point out that a lot of the damage done to bladed boards could be avoided, if the players would keep their dart points in top condition, even if it means changing them on a regular basis. Unfortunately this is not done enough, and the manufacturer of the board receives the blame for short lived products.
Another problem the modern board has the use of tungsten darts, Which has improved the accuracy of the player due to the dart being slimmer in other words allowing for tighter grouping.
If you are looking for a good brisle dartboard, or darts accessories, visit us at www.dartshop.com.au
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Posts Tagged ‘Leaves’
How Bristle Dartboards Developed
Thursday, November 5th, 2009UFO Spotted Over Overland Park in 2004
Monday, March 10th, 2008Mark Fisher asked:
It started out as a tiny star, barely a speck in the sky, at 10:37 p.m. approximately. A reddish colored dot, hardly noticeable until it began to change color as it get bigger, or closer, changing from red to blue to a bright red and finally to a true gold, not yellow, not orange, but a true gold as it became incredibly bright and huge. It was bright enough to cast a shadow, not like a ray or beam of light, but rather from an overall gold glow. Hovering… Quietly… Not making a sound, not rustling the leaves or making any breeze. It just got bigger, closer, brighter, “golder”. Much bigger than an airplane. Then, suddenly, it began to dart across the sky, rapidly, like on a straight line. Then, just as rapidly, without stopping, it changed direction and darted back towards its once previous position. Closer. Then it would begin rising and moving further away, only to suddenly become bigger again as it would quickly begin coming closer once again. Two witnesses noticed the red light from their windows and followed it, getting interested enough to go downstairs and outside to gain a better look. Two witnesses, one a woman, one a man, told matching tales of the object, agreeing on every last detail. Twice I tried to trick them by mentioning yellow or green lights but instead they would correct me saying it was red, then blue, then bright red, then an extremely bright glowing gold color, NOT yellow they would insist. No matter how hard I tried to sway them from their statements, they remained consistent and adamant.
This writer knows both witnesses well, and knows they are not the type or types to fashion some hairbrained scheme or story. The woman is a teacher of children, dedicated to bettering the life of young children. The man is a responsible businessperson, the manager of a successful business. Neither take drugs. Neither were drinking, not even so much as a thimbleful of cough medicine between them. No, it was not in their heads – it was real. Actual visions of something mysterious, frightening, and, perhaps, menacing. Both got spooked and sought shelter. Both continued to watch it behind locked doors. For over twenty minutes it would come, go, dart one direction for several seconds then dart back. Changing colors as it got closer or farther away. Finally, it moved “mostly North, slightly West”, perhaps NNW as it became only a reddish spark in the sky, until finally it had moved so far that it could no longer be seen, hidden by trees and the many miles with which it was traveling away.
Zach F. saw it first. He frequently watches planes come and go at the nearby municipal airport. He knows an airplane or a helicopter when he sees one. He knows where planes land and take off from and the basic locations of all the small airports, and major ones, in the area. Zach knows planes and helicopters. He does not know of objects that can change speed and direction so abruptly and change colors so totally. Certainly not an object as large as this. Trisha M. knows what she saw, the whole experience indelibly imprinted into her memory banks by the importance and significance she felt as she witnessed it. “This is not right”, was an everpresent thought, so she watched carefully and noted each and every detail, not knowing what might be important.
An eerie thirty minute experience that will require some answers for two quite shaken witnesses and this inquisitive writer, who fully believes their identical, corroborated stories, but neither authorities, nor the media are interested in hearing their story. One can only wonder “Why?” Surely there cannot be some vast comspiracy could exist regarding UFOs, can there? More likely is that they saw some new hush-hush experimental military vehicle. Perhaps in ten or twenty years, classified documents can be declassified and made public about a highly maneuverable, extremely fast military vehicle that can change color and direction at will. Only then might we learn the truth.
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