1. “The Joust Point!” – Since the year 1908, when darts began being machined out of metal, there has been a humongous design defect in every metal dart that has been manufactured until NOW! Points, in a cylindrical shape, were pressed into barrels to make a fixed point dart. Unfortunately, adjacent to where the point is pressed into the barrel, a lip on the nose of the barrel has always been exposed. This lip and nose actually, is the area of the dart that catches on the edges of the flights that are on the darts that are already in the dartboard. This action is called being “clothes-lined.” Either the barrel’s lip directly catches on the edge of a flight, or the side surface of the point will catch the edge of the flight and the point then runs along this edge until the flight’s edge is guided to the lip of the barrel. At this time, upon impact, you will hear a “thud.” At this time, all of the energy that is contained in the in-coming dart is now transferred into the stationary dart, and the in-coming dart now becomes inert and falls to the floor. Additionally, the large blunt noses, or front ends, on some darts can also be potentially detrimental for being “clothes-lined.” Typically an example of these types of darts would be torpedo shapes.
DartSmarts DESIGN PHILOSOPHY
In retrospect, darts is not only a sport, but more specifically, it is a shooting sport. If the goal of being a competitive darts player is to develop the skill in order to throw three consistent and repetitive darts in an extremely tight group, it seems highly masochistic to play with darts that, in essence, periodically punishes us when we’re successful at accomplishing this feat. Where is the fun? In pressure situations when we need to hit a specific target and we actually are able to put the dart on that successful trajectory’s path, how awful do we feel after we’ve done what we’ve had to do but instead, we now are denied that victory because of a design flaw in our darts? It’s the worst. We had the opportunity, we did all we could do, but in the end, we were denied of our rightful victorious moment. This won’t ever happen again if you play with darts manufactured by DartSmarts.
The main features of this new Engineering Wonder we refer to as “The Joust Dart” are as follows:
2. DartSmarts’ New Revolutionary “Feathered Flight and Shaft System”
Pictured in Silver for a clearer view of the system. Entire shaft is actually red (as pictured below in the FT section).
Use Either Conventional Flights or Feathers
Smartly Secured Feathers – Quick Replaceable Single Vanes!
Feathered Flight Shapes – “FT” – “Standard” – Coal Cracker!
Shaft Cap Eliminates All Chances of Robin Hooding
Shaft Lengths – “Short” – “In-Between” – “Medium”
“Necessity is the mother of invention.”
Natural seems to work the best. Anything that’s artificial doesn’t seem to do as well. Birds fly through the air. Feathers seem to manage air naturally, but unfortunately feathered flights died out for three major reasons. One: Shooting with feathers was expensive. In throwing a tight grouping, one wing could be wiped out which would make the whole feathered flight & shaft unit trashed. Going through a set or two of these old “turkey feather” flight/shafts weekly could be very expensive. Two: The companies that were making these feathered flights were making the feathers in the shapes that were more conducive for arrows. Three: Elderly women were doing the “fletching” at home as a part time job, but unfortunately this generation literally died out. I guess these companies didn’t take any recruitment efforts.
DartSmarts has designed a new comprehensive “Feathered Flight and Shaft System” that covers all the bases. First of all the Shaft System can also accommodate our “FT” flight, plus standard and coal cracker polyester flights. For feathers, we use a man-made feather called a “plastic vane,” which can take more abuse than a regular turkey feather flight and additionally, this flight has self-healing properties. Within the grooves of the shaft, we’ve added tubular channels by which a person can take an individual single feathered “vane” and slide it into this channel. If during play, one of these vanes needs replacing, all you have to do is slide the bad feather out and slide the new one in. It will take less than five seconds totally. We will have vanes in the shape of our “FT” Performance flight, but also standard and coal cracker shapes as well.
As far as the shaft itself goes, we use nylon because it gives the shooter a better “feel of throw.” The shaft also rotates in order to generate tighter groupings and thus, scoring. Incidentally, rotation also is cost effective because it minimizes flight wear and tear. Additionally, you’ll love this, we’ve added a cone shaped cap that fits over the rear end of the shaft so that “Robin Hooding” will now be a thing of the past for you! This deflective friendly cap now totally encapsulates the flight. Also, our Shaft System will come in Short, In-Between and Medium lengths!
3. Ergonomic Grip – 600% More Control! – This barrel’s grip provides the necessary specific textured surface required for both control and consistency. This surface provides maximum forward grip, while also being conducive for the pivoting movement of the fingers on the barrel during the launching process. Most darts today fail for consistency, due to the dart leaving the fingers uncontrolled from either having “too good” of a grip, as in the case with a diamond knurled surface (designed for a tacky “sure-grip”) that is not conducive for “pivotability” or either having too smooth of a grip which produces “slippage” on the surface of your skin at the critical point in time of your dart’s release.
For more information, READ Dart Design & Equipment Class 101 – Understanding Dart Design & Equipment
4. “FT” Performance Flight – “The Joust Dart” comes with DartSmarts’ “FT” Performance Flight! This flight allows shooters to throw the much desired “Flatter Trajectory.” Aerodynamically, the dart is now able to remain stable throughout its trajectory through the refinement of its design shape as well as due to the minimization of its wing surface area. This flight will allow a shooter to throw this dart with less effort but on a flatter trajectory. This flatter trajectory also produces a much better character position after it hits the board. A dart that is positioned in the board at a 45 degree angle is undesirable simple because it is not only a physical obstruction for throwing tighter groups, but it is also a visual obstruction if it is blocking a dart shooters visual sighting. A dart’s 5 to 15 degree physical posture in the dartboard is not only conducive for sighting and hitting the intended target, but it’s also a huge advantage when throwing tight groupings, especially when you can carom your dart off of one or both of your other darts that are adjacent to your desired targets and into your desired target.
Food For Thought: DartSmarts strongly feels that air cannot travel over the surface areas of flights that have a bumpy or rough surface. We feel that this surface area produces in-flight turbulence. Turbulence develops into drag and now, this dart requires more energy to launch. Once you have to use more effort to throw a dart, we feel that your success percentages will decrease.
5. Radius Point! – Tired of bounce-outs? Sharp points generate bounce-outs! See for yourself. Take a close look at the round shaped dividing wires on a dart board. You’ll see small craters! The sharp point digs itself into a hole and can’t get out, even if you’re shooting with a moveable point! A point with a radius or rounded shape, will keep the point on the surface of the wire allowing the energy that is still within the dart to hopefully move into the board. The rounded tip will allow the dart to slide and roll off of the wires.
This picture is positive proof why sharpening your darts is detrimental to your game!
6. Self-Securing Spiral Groove! – Pub and bar dartboards, where 90% of all dart playing occurs, are notoriously worn out. Bar owners and managers don’t care about gaming equipment, but they do care about selling you drinks though! Dartboards experience excessive use and abuse. How many times have you thrown the perfect dart to hit your target and your dart ends up staying in the target for about 3 seconds and
then falls to the floor? Well, it doesn’t have to be so. Our Self-Securing Spiral Groove has permanent edges that will grip the bristles on the dartboard a lot more than if you were twisting your points in sandpaper. You won’t believe how your dart can’t fall out!