Nickel Silver, Tungsten or, brass!?

What is the best darts material for beginners? Your Ultimate Guide is Here.

Darts come in all shapes, sizes, weights, and types of grip. 

There are three materials that are the most common, being Brass, nickel silver which is quite similar to brass but does not react with air to tarnish, and finally tungsten.

Brass darts are heavier and larger but as mentioned can tarnish and sometimes for me don’t feel good in my grip.

Nickel silver darts are similar to brass darts in size, shape, and weight, but something to bear in mind as a new darts player is to expect darts bouncing out of the board off the wall and hitting the floor.  with all this potential damage  that can occur to your darts,  I advise you to invest in something more robust,  which gets us to tungsten

Tungsten darts are the most durable of materials available and a good set of tungsten darts could last you a lifetime.

Another advantage of tungsten darts is that they are made of dense material, so smaller-sized stems can weigh the same as more old-fashioned brass stems.

So, although darts made of each of the materials mentioned can be used to play darts in the home or the occasional match in the bar, my choice would be to go for a decent set of tungsten darts which you can invest in for a very reasonable price.

I’ve deliberately not even included all-in-one stems and flights when looking at darts as primarily they aren’t going to help you improve your game and they aren’t a worthwhile investment. They are prone to split and you can’t replace individual components, give them a miss.

Best darts weight for beginners

Now that I’ve rang you through the material I would advise you to get your first dart set made of tungsten.

What about weight?

In general terms, anything under 20 grams in the Dark World is Dean to be light and everything over 25 g is generally thought to be a heavy set of darts. 

Moving on to the dart weight, I would advise beginners to start with a dart set that weighs between 24 to 26 g. The reason for this is that this is a very average weight for darts and after trying them for a few months you will know whether they are right for you or whether a heavier or lighter set would suit your game more.

An important consideration to make when choosing your first set is whether or not you throw the darts with finesse or with a lot of force.  Lighter darts will generally require more force to penetrate the board, whereas heavier darts don’t require quite so much to enter the board. So if you have a quick and gentle throwing style a heavier set of darts may be more suitable for you.

As I say, a dart set of average weight will allow you to test. In fact, in a relatively short space of time, you will discover whether the darts are right for your style or not. It may even be the case that you can adjust your throwing technique to utilize the darts you have for your best performance. 

I am going to be brutally honest though, as a beginner  I don’t feel that you will find a great deal of difference but as usual, that’s down to each player and what their throwing action is like.

Once you’ve been playing for a longer period and you understand your game in more detail, you will be able to assess whether the darts you have right now are the ones you want to continue playing with or whether buying the more expensive dart set would be more beneficial for your game.

One thing I’ve always considered with the conundrum of which darts to use is that birthdays and Christmas are good times to remind your family and friends that you play darts and could do something new to try out. This will certainly give you more opportunities to determine the right darts for you.

Are lighter darts more accurate or are heavier darts better?

As ever in darts this is a massive point for discussion 🙂

It’s a rule of thumb that heavy darts require less force to throw to the board as the weight of the barrel gives them more impetus. I’d also suggest that heavy darts tend to stay in the board more as they are liable to hit harder and penetrate further. It could be argued that heavier darts fly more directly due to their heavier mass.

We also need to consider that bigger darts generally mean bigger barrel circumference which could mean it’s more difficult to group them. However, being a beginner or even relatively new to the game grouping is not the primary issue to consider when buying a dart set.  One thing that could be a problem though is the fact that if you don’t have your dart throwing is not so strong the heavier darts tend to drop lower down the board.

Moving on to light darts, these have a generally slimmer barrel which allows them to group close together. You will of course need slightly more force in your action to throw lighter darts, This means if you tend to throw with more “strength”, then lighter darts could be for you. 

Having lighter darts sometimes helps with the trajectory of your throw. This will keep your darts being thrown in a more constant plane, therefore hitting the board closer to where you have aimed.

As lighter darts generally require more force to get into the dartboard, if you naturally throw with less force, then you could find the darts fall out of the board more often.

Conclusion:

As a beginner,  I don’t feel you can go wrong by choosing 25g tungsten darts as your first set. However, I’m sure everyone would not necessarily agree with this but that’s darts!

Pro Bonus info:

What weight do pro dart players use?

Interestingly, pro dart players tend to use lighter darts, the average weight of around 22 grams. So if you feel like you’d be happiest starting with these lighter darts and aim for going a pro – go for it!