How to Maintain Your Darts and Dart Board

Have you ever wondered how to take care of your dart and dart board?

Unfortunately, many people don’t know this and unintentionally neglect their darts and dart boards. 

Even though modern products are made with better technology and are of a higher quality, you still need to give them some attention. If you don’t, they can start to deteriorate and will get damaged much more easily.

It can dramatically decrease their lifespan and before you know it you need to purchase new ones.

Luckily, maintenance isn’t that hard. There are a few easy steps you can take to look after them. Let’s look at how to maintain your darts and dart board.

Everything You Need to Maintain Your Darts and Dartboard

Take note that old dart boards were called bristle boards and needed to be soaked for maintenance.

But this can damage contemporary products.

Steps to Taking Care of Your Darts and Dartboard

1. Rotate the Board

An essential part of maintaining your dartboard is to turn it every now and again.

Certain games like Cricket favor specific parts of it so they can get worn out more quickly. Besides this, some players prefer to throw at specific spaces on it so they will take more strain.

2. Protection From the Elements

Doing maintenance gives you a chance to make sure that your equipment isn’t exposed to harsh environmental conditions.

Firstly make sure that there isn’t any bright light that is shining directly on the board. A good idea is to make sure that there you use standard light bulbs to light up the room around the board when you are playing. Turn them off when you are done.

Check that no moisture can get to your board and darts and keep it away from windows or a breeze so that extra dust doesn’t get on it.

A top tip for protecting your dart board is getting a cabinet for it. It will keep away the dust and give some protection from light and other environmental conditions.

3. Wipe Down Your Board

The next step is to clean your board. Take the microfibre cloth and dust of the whole board. If it can easily be removed from where it is mounted take it off and wipe the back too.

After this, you should take a damp cloth and try to clean off any dirty spots that are left on the board. But try not to get the board too wet.

4. Remove Loose Fibers

When you remove darts some felt or cloth fibres might get loose from the front of the board. These can get in the way when you are trying to hit the board.

Take a lint remover and roll it over the board a couple of times to remove some fluff. Afterwards if are any remaining fibres stand out and can get in the way gently trim them off with small scissors.

5. Check Your Darts

It is essential for you to look at the condition of your darts regularly.

Over time the flights their flights and tips can become damaged. They need to be fixed to make sure that your throws are accurate and that the darts don’t hurt the board.

If the flights are bent, or start pulling apart, you should replace them. Most dart sets come with extras, but otherwise, you can buy replacements.

The tips should be sharp and smooth. If there are burrs on the side of the dart, you can try to sand them off gently.

When the tips become blunt, you can sharpen it with a dart sharpener. You should be able to find one online or at sports stores.

6. Clean Your Darts

Darts can become surprisingly grimy and dirty. This is especially true if it is used often by many people.

It is best if you avoid them getting dirty in the first place, but it is usually unavoidable.

Nobody wants to use greasy darts. It can be gross and off-putting but can also influence how you throw and hold them. They can be too slippery.

On the other hand, they might be sticky which will hamper the actual throw.

Fill a bowl with lukewarm water and teaspoon of dishwashing liquid. Then remove the flights from your darts and place the dart into the water. Let it soak for ten minutes and then try to scrub some of the dirt of with the toothbrush.

Don’t scrub too hard. You don’t want to scratch the dart. If the grease doesn’t come off easily put it back in the water for another ten minutes. Repeat until they are squeaky clean.

Afterward, dry them off with a towel and wipe off the flights with a damp cloth.

7. Don’t Overuse

A critical step of taking care of your gear is making sure that you don’t use it too much.

You are probably asking how I should do that?

Obviously, your darts and dart board are there to play with so don’t think you shouldn’t use it. Try to follow the guidelines given by the manufacturers of the products. They usually provide a recommendation of how many players should play at a time.

You will find this on the boxes or on the instruction manual and booklet and keep this in mind. Doing this will help them to last longer.

For example, if your dartboard and darts are in a pub consider buying more than once so that the strain is split between them.

8. Continuing With Maintenance

Maintenance isn’t just a once off deal. It is an ongoing process.

In general, you should complete these steps once every two weeks. However, if you do not use the board often, you might have only to do it once a month. But if the board and darts are used on a daily basis, you should probably complete the necessary steps once a week.

If you see some dirt on the gear, you should preferably clean it as soon as possible so that it doesn’t soak in or cause to much damage.

Final Thoughts

Now you know how to maintain your darts and dartboard. You should carefully follow these steps to make sure that your gear is in excellent condition.

In the end, proper care of your gear will save you a lot of money. Don’t worry if you didn’t take care of your equipment from the start. You can even extend the lifetime of boards and darts that are the worse for wear with some TLC.

You will find that is much more fun to play with equipment that is has been maintained.

Share this article with fellow dart players and tell us in the comments how you maintain your dart and dartboard.