Making Custom Darts

Have you ever wondered: If I just had the perfect dart, I know my game would improve drastically.

Not everyone has a design team on speed-dial like sponsored professionals. There is however another option. Bespoke. Truly unique one-off barrels made to your specifications.

As part of the work I do, I designed a barrel for A-Z Darts' Colonial line. With the help of Justin Elie, The Dart Craftsman, and A-Z’s in-house staff I went through a process that many darters don't get to experience. I thought it was an insightful experience; one that all players could learn from. For the sake of experimentation for the community, I went through the process of creating one-of-a-kind sets with Custom Made Darts and CUESOUL. Here is what you should understand before embarking on this journey yourself.

Try Lots of Darts:

Darts choice is a fickle thing. I recommend you trying out as many types of sets as possible before thinking of having your own set made. Whether at a league night, a tournament, or just messing around at a bar, try other players’ darts (with permission of course). This experimentation will tell you more about your grip style, and how it should dictate your dart choice. 

With each dart you try, look closely at each dart in your hand. Finely parse which fingers touch what part of the barrel, point, shaft, and with how much pressure. Recognize the lie of the darts you like best in the board. Research the dimensions of the barrels you like.

Balance and Shape Should Come First…

…followed by Length, Diameter, Grips, and Finally Weight.

Too often when people grab a dart they ask, “What weight are these?”  Believe it or not, it is not the right question to ask first. Darts of the same weight and different balance and shape can feel different based on tungsten %, length, diameter and balance. IE a 24g Phil Taylor dart feels vastly different in your hand than a 24g Michael Van Gerwen dart.

Once you are comfortable knowing the balance and shape of the dart you like to throw, it is much easier to adjust to similar barrels, and barrels of the same model but at different weights. After this it becomes easier to account for the grip intensity of the cuts, grooves, dimples etc you would like at different parts of the barrel.

Parameters:

There are legal parameters that a full dart setup must fall within to play within the guidelines of the Dart Regulating Authority. For a dart to be acceptable for competition, it must be no more than 200 millimeters (7.87 inches) and no more than 40 grams (as of January 2023). Within these parameters, there are creative freedoms. There are no restrictions on diameter (although physics will play a part). The only other constraint is that the points be metal (obviously in referring to steel-tip play).

Most darts are made from tungsten billets (long dowels of metal). Tungsten is a heavy alloy that is malleable enough to be machined well for darts. You will generally see darts between 80% and 95% tungsten. Tungsten percentage does not have anything to do with how well you will throw a particular set, but from a raw metal perspective, the higher the percentage, the higher the cost. The higher the percentage of tungsten means you can pack more physical weight into a narrower or thicker barrel.

To give you perspective on these parameters:

• A Voks Mosquito is a 5.5gram barrel measuring 15.19mm in length and 3.94mm in diameter
• A Woody is a13.5 gram full dart, measuring 113mm(one piece: point to flight) and 12.13mm diameter
• A fairly common brass bar dart can measure 23 grams, 53.98mm in length, and 8.73mm in diameter.
• A Power 9-Five G8 (Phil Taylor 95% tungsten) 26gram model measures 41.98mm in length and 7.87mm in diameter.

After you are confident that you know the shape and balance you want, the process starts with a drawing. Justin Elie is the Technical Director for The Juilliard SchooI so he knows a lot about design and fabrication. When I told him I was going to do a dart barrel for Colonial, he said, “I could design that for you”. Justin is quite savvy with computer applications like AutoCad, Vectorworks, Sketchup,and Inventor but you needn't start as fancy as he. It can start with a napkin sketch, and you don't have to be a sketch artist to get your concept across. Justin recommends doing it on graph paper. I agree. It can help you visualize proportions.

Communication is key:

Be prepared to have a back and forth via email in communicating your design. You may think you have been specific, but remember, the designer does not have your mind’s eye. They are not envisioning your perfect dart. They are taking directions from you. Those directions need to be detailed when dealing with millimeters or fractions thereof. If there are cuts in a barrel you like - reference the particular barrel so that it can be replicated. IE ‘I want the Gerwyn Price chevrons painted red for 10mm from nose, back.’  Be specific as to how many millimeters you want that grip pattern to be.

Price:

Be prepared to pay what they would pay for an expensive set of darts at any retailer. All-in, custom darts are not cheap. Both companies start with a basic starting costs with add-ons that are incremental. Additional grips, fancier grips, laser etching, coatings, paint, engraving, intricate points etc. Each one of these require different tools and different machines to be set up.

Time:

Be patient. This is a detail oriented process and these companies have demand. CMD took about 14 weeks. CUESOUL took about 8 weeks. You may wait some time before they get to you. As an American customer, some of the time is literally down time, waiting in the time difference. Communicating via email, depending on when you send one, likely won’t get responded to until the next day. Both companies were incredibly communicative and never let an email wait more than a couple days go without being responded to. That being said, you want your communications to be succinct, and backed up with pictures so as not to miscommunicate. When directions are not understood well, it compounds the time delay.

Design is different than Manufacturing:

This was the biggest eye-opener for me. Just because you draw it, and just because it can be mocked up nicely on a computer application, doesn’t always mean it can be done. There are limits in the physical world as to what tools/capabilties companies have. There are certain grips that are patent protected (the Pixel grip by Target). There are indented grips that can be difficult to put into scallops or curved noses based on tool alignment and tungsten thickness. Sometimes paint colors don’t come out exactly how they are drawn up and depending on how painting is done. 

Points:

If you intend to put your own points in your new darts you should ask about the diameter and depth at which companies drill point holes. Believe it or not there are slight differences in both. Most points fit in most darts, but every now and then, they don't. If you have ever had a set of points not stay in a dart, you know what I mean. CMD and CUESOUL have standard points that they use on all of their darts. They also have options if you would like something else. The depth of the point hole that is drilled will obviously effect the length of the point that sticks out from the nose of the barrel. Recognize too, that as of 2024 competition the DRA has put restrictions on aggressive points. 

Etching/Engraving:

If you wish to put a laser etched or engraved name or logo on your custom darts you must account for the size of it generally with a smooth, unpainted part of the barrel. There is a lot of room for creativity here. Generally, you want this area to be a place on the barrel you don’t need to touch since it won’t have any grip on it. Some makers will want to put their logo on it as well. This is something you will need to discuss with them.

Company specific:

CUESOUL offers a decorative resin HOPE ring in a few different colors. A cool way to add some decorative bling to your darts. They also offer an OIL Paint Coating which mimics a sandblasted or atomized feel. They have large machines for both milling and painting which enable a wide variety of grip options and colors.

CMD works on manually operated lathes and their workshop is solar powered. They offer 3D CAD modeling as an add-on from your drawing. They have the ability to put in specific points to your darts. They offer the ability to do a 4th dart, to do a mini-run of 5 sets, or a mass run of 50 sets at bulk discount with less time to wait time. They also have the ability to do M3/4BA/No.5 micro thread.

I made a different set of darts with each of the companies. They are derived from Justin’s and A-Z’s original work for me. One was at 90% tungsten, and the other was at 80% tungsten. I can comfortably say I enjoy both sets, and it is because I based them on my particular grip style.  If you get to the point where you feel you are ready to create your own one-of-a-kind barrels, I recommend both companies for the quality of their products and their professionalism.

Word to the wise:

If the best players on the planet have changed to different barrels, you should meter your expectation that a specific dart is going to instantaneously make your game better. Nothing is a substitute for putting in the work. Professionals have the ability to have darts made for them at no cost to themselves individually. If you were to make as many different darts as Peter Wright, it would certainly put a hole in your pocket. A lot can change in a player too. Grip style, flights and shafts, weight gain/loss, the inability to lean out over the oche etc. If a company makes custom darts to your exact specifications, and you don’t like them, it's not the arrow, it's the archer. Be sure that the specs you deliver to them, are truly there specs you want.

Respectfully,

Dax

Dr. Manhattan