Best Steel Tip Darts for a Home Board
Buy tungsten rather than brass. Tungsten is about twice as dense, so a tungsten dart is much slimmer at the same weight, and three slim darts fit in an eight millimetre treble bed where three fat brass darts do not. Start at 24 grams, expect to spend thirty to forty dollars for a proper set, and treat shafts and flights as consumables.
Darts is the one part of this hobby where the correct upgrade is unusually cheap and the reason for it is unusually concrete. It is not about feel or brand: a treble bed is roughly eight millimetres wide, three darts have to share it, and a tungsten dart is much slimmer than a brass dart of the same weight. Three slim darts fit. Three fat ones do not, and the third gets pushed out of the segment by the first two.
If several people in the house are starting at once, buy the mixed weight set first instead. Weight preference is genuinely personal and nobody knows theirs until they have thrown 20, 24 and 26 grams, so buying four identical darts for four different people is a guess.
Darts at three budgets
LANNEY Steel Tip Dart Set, 20/24/26g
Sets at 20, 24 and 26 grams together, which is the sensible first purchase in a household where several people throw. Weight is genuinely personal and nobody knows their preference until they have thrown three weights, so buying one weight for four people is guessing.
- Weights
- 20, 24, 26 g
- Tips
- Steel
Best for: A household where several people are starting at once.
Target Artemis K-Flex 24g Tungsten Darts
Twenty four gram tungsten with a well cut grip and a flexible shaft system that survives a deflection rather than snapping. Tungsten is what makes a dart slim for its weight, and slim is what lets three darts share a treble bed.
- Weight
- 24 g
- Material
- Tungsten
Best for: Someone who has settled on a weight and wants a proper set.
Red Dragon Pegasus 24g Tungsten Darts
The cheapest set that is unambiguously a proper dart rather than a good beginner dart. Twenty four grams of tungsten in a slim barrel with a grip that works whether you hold it forward or back. If you buy one set of darts for a house board, buy this one.
- Weight
- 24 g
- Material
- Tungsten
Best for: The default set for a home board.
Turnart Soft Tip Darts, 9 Pack
Soft tip darts in a nine pack, which is the right quantity because plastic points break and get lost at a rate steel points do not. Only for electronic boards: throwing steel tips at an electronic board destroys the segments and the sensor matrix behind them.
- Tips
- Soft plastic
- Count
- 9
Best for: An electronic board in a family room.
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Tungsten against brass, with the numbers
| Question | Tungsten alloy | Brass |
|---|---|---|
| Relative density | About 2x brass | Baseline |
| Barrel diameter at 24 g | Slim | Noticeably fatter |
| Three darts in one treble | Fits | Frequently does not |
| Typical set price | $30 to $80 | $8 to $20 |
| Usually found in | Sets bought on purpose | Cabinet sets, free with a board |
| Grip options | Milled, knurled, ringed | Basic knurl |
| Barrel life | Effectively permanent | Effectively permanent |
The last row matters: brass darts do not wear out, which is why they linger in cabinet sets for years. The problem is not durability, it is width, and no amount of practice makes a fat dart thin. This is the whole case, and it costs about thirty eight dollars to fix.
Choosing a weight
- 20 to 22 g. Lighter, needs more speed, rewards a smooth release and punishes a jerky one. Popular with players who throw with a fast arm.
- 23 to 26 g. The mainstream. Twenty four is the most common single weight sold and the sensible default: flat enough in flight to be predictable, light enough not to need force.
- 27 g and up. Heavy, drops very little over the flight, forgives a slow arm. Some players love them, most find them tiring over a long session.
There is no correct answer, and anyone telling you otherwise is describing their own preference. What is true is that consistency matters far more than weight: throwing the same dart every time builds the muscle memory that scores, and switching weights every few months does not.
The set matters less than the setup. A thirty five dollar tungsten set thrown at a board hung with the bull at 68 inches from a line at 93.25 inches will do more for your scoring than an eighty dollar set thrown at a board hung by eye. Get the layout right first.
The parts, and which ones are consumables
- The point. Steel, fixed or replaceable depending on the set. Blunts over years. A light touch on a stone restores it; over-sharpening makes the point stick in the wires instead of deflecting off them, which increases bounce-outs rather than reducing them.
- The barrel. The metal body carrying almost all the weight, and where the tungsten content is. This is the part you are buying and it lasts indefinitely.
- The shaft, or stem. Plastic, nylon or aluminium, and a consumable. Shafts snap when a dart is struck by the next one, which happens constantly. Buy them in bulk. Shorter shafts move the flight forward and make the dart fly slightly nose down.
- The flight. The fin at the back, and the fastest consumable of all. Standard shape is the most stable and slows the dart most; slim shapes are faster and less forgiving. Swapping flight shape is the cheapest way to change how a dart behaves, so try it before buying a different set.
What to buy alongside
- A throw line. Non-negotiable and under twelve dollars: a peel-and-stick oche or a Winmau adhesive line . Practice from an approximate distance is practice for nothing.
- A better board, if yours came in a cabinet set. A staple-free sisal board reduces bounce-outs more than any change to the dart does. See the dartboard roundup.
- A surround. A foam ring catches the near misses that would otherwise be small holes in the paint.
- Somewhere for them to live. A wall caddy at nineteen dollars, because darts left on a windowsill get stood on.
- A scoreboard. A dry erase board . Scoring on a phone kills the game.
If your board is electronic, none of this page applies and you want soft tip darts instead. The full comparison is in bristle against electronic.
Deciding on a specific model? We review the Red Dragon Pegasus tungsten steel darts review in full.
Frequently asked questions
What weight darts should a beginner use?
Between 22 and 26 grams, and 24 is the most common starting point for a reason: it is heavy enough to fly with a flat, predictable trajectory and light enough not to require a hard throw. Lighter darts need more speed and reward a smoother release; heavier darts drop less over the flight and forgive a slower arm. The honest answer is that weight is personal, which is why a mixed set of three weights is a better first purchase than one set of four identical darts.
Why are tungsten darts better than brass?
Density. Tungsten is roughly twice as dense as brass, so a tungsten dart of a given weight is much slimmer than a brass dart of the same weight. That matters because three darts have to share a treble bed which is about eight millimetres wide: three slim tungsten darts fit and three fat brass darts physically do not, so the third dart is pushed out of the scoring segment by the first two. It is the cheapest genuine upgrade in the game.
How much should I spend on darts?
Between thirty and forty dollars gets a proper tungsten set, and that is where the value is concentrated. Under twenty dollars you are usually buying brass, which is the one thing worth avoiding. Above about eighty dollars you are paying for grip milling, barrel shape and finish, which a consistent thrower will feel and a casual one will not. Most home boards are best served by one good set per regular player at around thirty five dollars each.
What is the difference between the barrel, shaft and flight?
The barrel is the metal body you hold and it carries almost all the weight. The shaft, sometimes called the stem, is the plastic or aluminium stalk between barrel and flight and it sets how far back the flight sits. The flight is the fin at the back that stabilises the dart. Shafts and flights are consumables and break regularly, which is why they are sold in bulk packs, and swapping flight shape is the cheapest way to change how a dart flies.
Can I use steel tip darts on an electronic board?
No. Steel points punch through the plastic segments of an electronic board and damage the sensor matrix behind them, and no electronic board is rated for it. Steel tip goes on sisal and soft tip goes on electronic, and the two are thrown from different lines as well: steel tip from 7 ft 9.25 in and soft tip from 8 ft exactly.
How long do darts last?
The barrels last effectively forever unless you lose them, which is the most common way a set ends. Shafts and flights are consumables: flights bend and split after a few hundred throws and shafts snap when a dart is struck by the next one, which is why both are sold in multipacks. Points blunt over years and can be resharpened lightly with a stone, though over-sharpening causes them to stick in the wires rather than deflect off them.
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