One of the cool things to have if you are a steel tip darter is the battery operated tip sharpener.which shapes the dart tip to the correct angle in moments. Sure beats the traditional method of rubbing the tip on grinding paper.
The add a gram is an interesting idea. As the name suggests, you can add a gram of weight to your dart by screwing these into your dart and they come in packs of 6. (The shaft then screws into the brass weight) Then try the extra weight to see if your game gets any better. The add a grams are often part of a dart tuning kit that not only includes the add a grams but extra flights of varying shapes and shafts. You can then try out various combinations of weight, flights and shafts to improve your accuracy. Worth a try I suppose.
If you are a soft tip darter you are going to need replacement tips for when those tips get bent or broken. Halex have come out with notched soft tips to help stop the darts falling out of the board, never tried them myself, but they might be worth a go or just settle for the standard straight soft tip replacements.
One item every darter must have is the dart tool. The tool is handy for soft and steel tip darters. It not only helps you replace soft tips, but you can use it to straighten metal shafts and prize apart the metal tangs that hold your flight to make the flights fit better.
You must also have a set of flight protectors as not only do they protect the flight from being hit by a dart, they maintain the right shape of the flight when installed. These are a must have item for all darters.
Another way to protect your flights is to use the "spinner" shafts. The spinning shafts can spin so if they are hit by an incoming dart, they can spin the flight out of the way, so they protect the flight and do not hinder the dart just thrown.
Soft tip darts can have screw in steel tips to change them into steel tipped darts so you can use them on bristle boards. You can even have a screw in hammerhead type steel tip if the screw thread on you barrel is deep enough. These retractable steel tips can retract slightly into the barrel so that if your tip hits a wire on the board the tip can retract slightly absorbing the impact whilst allowing the forward momentum of the dart to force the dart into the board. They greatly reduce the number of bounce outs you get with a standard tip.
We have covered only a small selection of the dart supplies available, there are lots more,. so when you are looking for a present for the darts player in your life you have lots of choice.
------
Written by Steve Porter keen darts enthusiast. Visit his website for more dart supplies