 
4 Parts of a Dart
1) Point There are 2 types of points - Steel Tip and Soft Tip.
The steel tips are probably familiar to just about everybody.
Some are available in retractable points which have about a quarter inch of "play" in them.
When the dart hits the board, this amount of "give" allows the dart to make better
contact and reduces the likelihood of "bounce-out".
The soft tips are for use with an electronic scoreboard.
2) Barrel This is the part that you hold when throwing the dart.
The barrels are manufactured in many different designs and weights and are usually
composed of tungsten, steel or brass.
Tungsten has a very high density and enables a barrel to be thinner than a steel or brass
barrel of equal weight. Because of their being thinner, tungsten barrels allow tighter
groupings of darts.
Barrels are available in four basic shapes:
1) straight
2) center-weight
3) torpedo - maximum width where barrel meets the point
4) bomb - similar to the torpedo shape but maximum width slightly further back
3) Shaft Obviously, this connects the barrel to the flight. Some
shafts have a ring at one end which allows the flight to rotate. This has nothing to do
with the dart's trajectory but it allows the flight to turn if it lands very close to another
dart on the board. This permits tighter groupings and reduces bounce-outs.
Shafts are manufactured in the following lengths:
| Size
| Inches
| Millimeters |
| Micro
| 1/2
| 12.7
|
| X-short
| 1 1/ 8
| 28.575
|
| Short
| 1 3/ 8
| 34.925
|
| Stylus
| 1 7/ 16
| 36.5125
|
| CB
| 1 5/ 8
| 41.275
|
| Medium
| 1 7/ 8
| 47.625
|
4) Flight Just as the feathers (or "fletching") of an
arrow stabilize its trajectory, the flight of a dart performs the same function.
Flights are available in different shapes and sizes. Larger flights have greater stability
of trajectory but they also have more air resistance or "drag".
Some of the different shapes of flights are - standard, axis, combat,
fantail, heart, kite, pear, slim, vortex, v-wing, and others.
Click here to see a chart of dart flight shapes.
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