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Great info resource on Steel Segmented Blade
The Bristle Dart Board is still going strong by Steve Porter
As far as I know, the bristle dart board has never been made from boar bristles, I may be wrong, but I have never seen one made that way. I know there are places on the web that proclaim that the board was made of boar bristles once upon a time, but I checked on Patrick Chaplin's site and he is a Professor of darts.. No really, he is the first professor of darts in the world.
The "bristles" are actually pieces of rope tied together to make a small bundle. Lots of bundles are then put on a wooden base and compressed together using a steel ring. The face of the board is then sanded down and the dyes added to give the segments their different colours and then the "spider" or steel segment dividers are added. The number ring is put on the outside and hey presto; you have a bristle dart board.
The first one was made by Nodor, which is a bit odd as they were a company that made modelling clay and their boast was that the clay had no odour, hence the name Nodor. They then had an idea to make a dart board out of modelling clay, which frankly did not do very well as it was a bit messy, but they sold a few. This was a big step forward as the boards up to then had been simple wooden elm log ends.
Then some bright spark had the idea of making a dart board from rope and went to Nodor with the idea! This odd idea was proved to be a workable solution and Nodor patented the idea in 1933. Having the patent meant they were the only manufacturer allowed to produce the board for 20 years and then other manufacturers came on the scene.
Other manufacturers now entered the arena especially Winmau. Now the race was on to produce better and better versions of the original Bristle dart board; staple free bulls eyes and thinner wire shaped in a diamond shape to reduce the dreaded bounce outs appeared. They also reduced the gauge of the wire used in making the spider, so much so that the present boards have 20% or more extra space for the darts to hit.
This means that these days all of the premium tournament boards are staple free and have ultra thin wire segment dividers. Winmau has its Blade III board and Nodor its Supawires board and now there are a whole host of other makes as well which all have increased scoring areas like the DMI Bandit that is totally staple free. All of these developed staple free bulls eyes and thin spiders increasing the overall scoring area. The Bristle dart board is at the peak of its development, giving rise to increased scores compared to the past due to those ultra thin wires and increased scoring areas.
As for the future of the Bristle dart board, I think it is still bright, as nothing quite matches the look, sound and feel of a classic bristle board not withstanding the incredible developments of the electronic dart board.
About the Author
Written by darts enthusiast Steve Porter. To see the latest Bristle Dart Boards visit http://www.dartsboardscabinets.com/Bristle_dart_boards.html
Cutting Brick Block Pavers Stone Steel with Gilatools All Cut Master Turbo Blade