Maintenance and transportation

Maintenance

Darts don't need a lot of maintenance. Most parts that get worn (shafts, flights, soft tips) should simply be replaced.

a bunch of soft dart tips

Soft tips often bend. You can try to bend them back manually if you want to save tips, but the better method is to replace them frequently.

Steel dart tips usually don't bend, but they get blunt. So you will have to sharpen them regularly. Special grinding equipment is on sale here, but the best way to sharpen your darts is simple grinding paper.

how to sharpen your darts

Sharpen your darts like in the picture above. Put the grinding paper on the edge of a table, then grind rectangular to the tip with continuously spinning the dart around. If you grind rectangular to the tip you will be surprised how solid the dart will later stick in the board! If you buy new steel tips for your darts the first action should be to give them a few strokes on the grinding paper. New tips have a very smooth surface, which can make your darts fall out of the board quite frequently.

Maintenance tools

1) A useful "combination tool" that can be used for various purposes -- fixing shafts and tips for instance.
2) One of the grinding tools mentioned above. Not bad, but grinding paper is better.
3) A clever tool for removing that nasty shaft piece that's sometimes sticking in the barrel thread when a nylon shaft breaks. If you are using nylon shafts this tool is very handy, especially when a shaft breaks in the middle of a match and you have to replace it fast.

Transportation

Dart cases. You can of course carry your darts in your trouser pocket, but that's pretty poor treatment, especially for the flights. Remember from the flight section that you should always spread your flights! Your trouser pocket hardly guarantees that. You should really invest in a dart case here, it's worth the bucks. Best choice is a case where you can keep the darts with the flights in proper shape.

This is a very handy case for your darts. Fast access and the flights stay well in shape. Not the cheapest solution, but the most practical. My personal recommendation.

Well, that's the ultimate dart case... if money is out of question of course!

Not the best solution 'cause the flights must be flattened to store the darts.

The ultimate low-budget case. You often get it with the set of darts you have bought. Not very useful because again the flights must be flattened and pressed back to shape for action.