The Case For And Against Metal Shafts

When darts shafts changed from the all in one wood with feather flights to separate plastic flights and shafts a small number of metal shafts gradually found their way into general use. Now, however they seem to be coming more and more popular.

There are several drawbacks to metal shafts, not least being the price. They vary from about twice the price of plastic up to three or four times the cost. On the other hand they generally last a lot longer than plastic do. Aluminum as a metal is not much heavier than plastic so it does not affect the weight or balance of a dart but steel is a lot heavier so shafts made of this metal are very thin as can be seen from the diagrams. This extra thin shaft also gives the added benefit that there is less of a target for other darts to hit and cause a bounce out.

Metal shafts now come in a range of designs with some grooved and some painted all the colours of the rainbow and some of them even have replaceable lugs to hold the flights in. One drawback is that metal shafts do not come in so many different lengths as plastic do. A big advantage of metal is that the lugs are very tight fitting on the flights so that once in a flight hardly ever comes out. Indeed some of the thicker flights are almost impossible to get into the dart so it is better to leave the flights in all the time.

Plastic shafts have a tendency to work loose and constantly need a quick twizzle to tighten them but as can be seen from the drawings metal shafts have a small hole in them into which a dart point can be inserted and used like a spanner to tighten them very securely. Rubber “O” rings can also be used to stop them vibrating loose.

When a dart bounces out with a plastic shaft and hits the floor it very often breaks the shaft, sometimes in the barrel. This never happens with a metal shaft simply because they are that much stronger. The lugs that hold the flights in rarely break off either, or bend when hit by another dart, as happens all to often with plastic.

Generally then there are a lot of good points in favour of metal shafts and I think that their use would be far more widespread if more Pubs and Clubs sold them instead of the plastic shafts that you see on sale everywhere.