When was the last time you cleaned your
darts?
Maybe.. "Never"?
Accumulated dirt, skin acid, chalk dust, pretzel salt,
hand lotion, (beer), etc. can build up on your dart
barrels. This corrosive mixture is what actually eats
away that original pretty finish.
Skin acid is pretty potent stuff. As example, just
look at how quickly a new penny, or polished silverware,
tarnishes after being handled.
That acid, along with salty residue from snacks, is
very effective at corroding away the nickel matrix that
is the binding material in nickel/tungsten darts.
When someone's dart start to show wear, with knurling
smoothing down, & the sharp edges of grooves becoming
rounded, it is not usually just due to hitting other
darts. The majority of such wear is simply corrosion.
To greatly extend the useful life of your darts, clean
them regularly, and especially after eating any salty or
greasy snacks. Any mild cleaner that can remove oil will
do: hand soap, household ammoniated cleaners, even moist
towelletes (not the ones that contain hand lotion!). At
tournaments or league, small alcohol swab packets are
handy.
Removing all of that crud from your darts will not
only make them last longer, but will also restore much of
the grip by removing both the slippery feeling and the
particles filling-in the hollows of the knurling.
Just about any sport equipment needs to be cleaned
regularly to remove sweat, dirt, etc., yet it never
occurs to most people that their darts also need
cleaning.
Not to mention.. isn't it a bit gross to be handling
those grubby darts that have been on the floor, bars,
tables, many hands, etc.?
So, to make your darts last longer & throw
better... keep 'em clean!
Rick
Osgood
Here's a link to humorous
CyberDarts article about "keeping
clean":
Just
Right!
