Brass darts: Don't write them off!

Hi Guys

I wanted to take a minute to reflect on a dart which was once the industry lead but is now merely considered a cheap 'entry level' type, and that is the brass dart!

There is just something about the feel and grip of brass that even with all the new coatings:

• Titanium
• Rosso
• Silica
• Bronzer

still hasn't been able to be replicated.  As John Lowe has said: "there's nothing like the feel of bass darts"

Of course there is a trade-off. Being a much denser material Tungsten has the drop on brass darts in weight to size ratio's with brass darts often being very big in comparison however i would not necessarily let that put you off. Having been blessed with large ish hands i have always struggled with thin darts as a rule and many of my best practices and even performances were with a set of 12g brass darts.

Of course, unless you are throwing traffic cone sized darts size should not necessarily be considered a hinderance. Whilst i do not know of any professionals out there today who use brass, there are plenty who throw darts that would be considered to be 'heavy' or 'chunky' compared to what is available (e.g. if it followed suite then all professionals would be using Ted Hankey style 14g's, as you can fit about 20 of them in the treble 20)

It should also be remembered that players of the past like Leighton Rees (user of 31g darts, large darts) and Jim Pike (large brass darts) were stars in their era and had no problem hitting the target.

In-fact if we take Rees as an example, he used brass until the advent of tungsten and even then Rees used a set of 31g that were poorly weighted (it was acknowledged by Winmau that when copies were taken of his darts for their replicas that the weight differed from 27-31g for the 3), and very large by today's standard (8.5mm wide and 51mm long  =brass type dimensions) and yet Rees had no trouble hitting the 180's even with the thick wires and staples of the boards then.

It should also be noted that he won the first darts world championship in 1978  and the Butlins Grand masters in 1978, and undoubtedly would have won far more tournaments had there been the proliferation of them as there is today.

Lets  look at that 1978 World Championship run:

First round: 93.94 ave (best of 11 legs)
Quarter Final: 97.49 ave (best of 11 legs)
Semi Final: 79.80  (best of 15 legs)
Final : 92.40 (best of 21)

That's an average of 91 across the tournament with these thick 31g darts. Now lets fast-forward  37 years to 2015 and the BDO world championship.   Despite all the advancements in darts technology, flights, stems and boards the eventual winner Scott Mitchell averaged 92.61 in the final (only 00.21 higher - although admittedly over a longer format), its nominal isn't it?

So, ultimately what am i getting at??? Its easy really, give brass darts a try. Don't be swayed by the price and size. You can score BIG with 3 brass just as you can with tungsten. You only have 3 darts remember so as long as 3 fit does it matter? Its better to be able to score 100-120 with brass rather than 26 with tungsten!

Is it better, no, its just an option that shouldn't be discredited by virtue of fashionability and cost.

Anyway just my 2 cents

Luke