Posts Tagged ‘Tungsten Dart’

Bottelsen Darts, Made in the Usa

Thursday, March 19th, 2009

Steve Porter asked:


Bottelsen darts, the inventor of the hammerhead retractable dart system, claims it is the only US based manufacturer in the darts world. Now 25 years in the business, that hammerhead system rocketed the company to fame and they are still at the cutting edge even now, with an enhanced hammerhead technology for their latest version of the famous hammerhead darts and they are in the soft dart business as well with their skinnys darts, that come in soft tip and convertible kits. Still at the cutting edge of darts technology, they are company producing quality products, and their darts are always worth a look when getting a new set.

The hammerhead system that made Bottelsen so famous is, like all great inventions, a very simple idea. The tip of the dart is connected to a very small spring rather like a tiny pogo stick, so that the tip can be pushed back into the barrel by a small amount. This means that if the dart hits a wire of the spider on the dartboard, the tip absorbs the shock of impact by retracting into the barrel, whilst hopefully the forward motion of the dart enables the dart tip to slide down the edge of the wire and enter the dartboard. It works very well and it wasnt called the Hammer Head No Bounce dart for nothing, it greatly reduced the amount of bounce outs caused by the dart board wire and staples.

One of the great things about Bottelsen darts is the great names they give their darts, like Megathrust, Devastators and Nemesis, not to mention Ooh&Aah , now what marketing genius came up with that! Seriously though they do produce some excellent darts. The original hammerhead darts were 90 % tungsten but they have a 95 % tungsten dart as well with the Devastator dart that is super slim and has spinning shafts as well. With a variety of grips to choose from with smooth coarse and edge grip.

Talking of grip, Bottelsen have a range called Gorilla Grip with an extra coarse knurled grip for that extra secure grip when throwing your darts, not everyones idea of a good grip perhaps, but just an indication of how Bottelsen tries to cater for all tastes of darters.

The darts with the ridiculous name, Ooh Aah darts were developed from the Bottelsen GT series, but the barrels are much straighter and yes they also have the hammerhead tip and of course the Bottelsen spinning shafts too. Whilst they are famous for their steel tip darts, Bottelsen also do a big range of soft tip darts as well, like their Skinnys, which as you might expect are a thin barrelled dart that can also be bought as a convertible dart set. In fact any soft tip dart is convertible to steel tip by just getting a ***** in steel point. The Skinnys convertibles have genuine Hammerhead action steel tips. They also do a soft tip version of most of their steel tip range as well like their GT, Devastators, Gorilla grip range and of course those ridiculously named Ooh Aahs.

As you might expect from Bottelsen, they have crazily named darts range called Kick Ass, which are at the less expensive end of Bottelsen’s range with lots of different colored shafts and flights.

A novel idea from Bottelsen is their Precision range, which has a fluted barrel so you can place your fingers on the barrel the same way every time to aid in consistent throwing technique with a thumb and finger indents in the dart.

So whether you are a steel tip or soft tip darter, Bottelsen Darts has a set for you, with 25 years of consistent quality, you wont go far wrong with a set of Bottelsens.



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What to Look for When Buying Darts

Saturday, March 17th, 2007

Steve Porter asked:


The most common dart these days is the 80% tungsten dart. This is a great advance on the brass darts and the wooden darts that came before that. The main reason that darts are made of tungsten is that tungsten is a very heavy material and darts can be made much thinner than before by using it (perhaps we’ll use platinum next, boy they would be expensive) What this means is that the darts can fit together much more closely in the dart board, giving rise to the greater possibility of higher scores. (which is what we all want , Right! )

Tungsten, which means heavy stone in Swedish apparently, is a remarkable metal with the highest melting point of any metal at 3000 degrees C or so. The reason you don’t get 100% tungsten darts is because pure tungsten is a very brittle metal and is commonly mixed with nickel to make the dart less brittle and easier to manufacture. 95% tungsten is the highest alloy level so far sold by Bottelsen and are a tad pricey. It is not really worth paying the extra for 95% tungsten darts, if the pros are winning tournaments with 80% darts thats proof enough.

When it comes to the grip on the barrel of the dart there are many types to choose from diamond pattern knurled barrel to plain and now the new edge grip. Just get a design you are comfortable with, try out your mates darts to see what suits you.

Dart tips come in two styles, a fixed steel tip for use on Bristle dartboards or replaceable soft tips for use on electronic dart boards. More and more darts are coming out with 2BA ***** threads on both ends of the barrel so you can put soft tip or steel tip or even the steel tip retractable on the end of the barrel. One point to note here is that usually the maximum weight of dart allowed on electronic dart boards is 20 gram, so if you want your darts to be used on all type of boards, do not go over 20 gms for your dart barrel.

Next comes the shaft to hold the flights, it should be light to keep the weight of the dart forward and are made from plastic, aluminium, steel wire or even titanium! The only thing to worry about with the shafts is that they are straight and undamaged so the flights are held in place properly. The latest innovation is spinning shafts, which are designed to rotate out of the way to minimise the deflection of the dart when it hits a flight. This seems a great idea to me, it helps to protect the flight as well.

That just leaves the flights, which come in loads of amazing designs and materials. The shapes include the classic “kite” design, which are relatively large to the pear drop and all stages in between. Ensure you use the same style of flight on all 3 darts and keep them spread so that there is a 90 degree angle between the four flight pieces to aid in consistency of your throw. Also use flight protectors, not only do they protect your flight; they will keep the flight at the optimum shape as a bonus.

So to sum up, get yourself some tungsten darts, the average weight is 18

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