The Complete Handbook of Dart Tips

Chapter 1: Understanding Dart Tips

A dart tip is a small, tapered point—typically between 16 and 22 millimeters long and 2 to 3 millimeters in diameter—that forms the striking end of a dart. It is inserted into a hollow shaft or flights assembly and serves as the contact point between the dart and the dartboard. That is the mechanical definition. The practical reality is more important: the dart tip is the single most exposed, frequently replaced, and misunderstood component in the entire dartboard system, and its selection, installation, and maintenance directly affect playability, equipment longevity, and cost.

To understand why tips matter, you must first understand what a dartboard experiences. In a competitive league environment, a single board may receive between 500 and 1,500 dart impacts per week—far more in commercial venues where machines run continuously. Each impact is a small trauma: the tip penetrates the board's bristle or wire surface, the shaft imparts torque and lateral force, and the tip is extracted. Repeated over thousands of impacts, this cycle causes measurable damage. The brittleness, hardness, and shape of the tip directly determine how much damage each impact causes and how quickly the board degrades.

Consider two extreme scenarios. A player or venue operator purchases soft, low-cost nylon tips and installs them loosely in the dart. Over the course of a season, the tips deform, bend slightly, and occasionally snap. Each bent or deformed tip changes the angle at which the dart strikes the board, causing uneven pressure distribution and