Are there any alternatives to tungsten for darts?
The escalating price of tungsten didn't just send me down a rabbit hole, I did the whole warren! I've been obsessively looking at every material known to man but before we get into that let's take a look at the materials that have been used for darts in the past (and present).
Materials used to make darts
Tungsten darts
Tungsten darts are of course the norm and have been for decades. The simple reason for this has always been the price and density being far better than anything else out there. Obviously a lot more expensive as a raw material than brass and more expensive to machine but until recently it was still value for money.
Tungsten being a brittle metal is usually bound with other metals, most commonly nickel or copper to make a more stable product resistant to the wear and tear of dart playing. A 97% tungsten ratio is about as high as it is recommended to go before becoming too brittle whilst the optimum strength is actually supposed to be the 92% mark.
The density of 90% nickel tungsten billets (the most common) is 17 - 17.1 g/cm³
Tungsten Rhenium darts
20 or 30 years ago a small darts company called B&W made a Tungsten 95% / Rhenium 5% dart. It was a nice idea and the density was the equivalent to over 101% tungsten. Sadly as rhenium is also a brittle metal it wasn't as strong as normal tungsten darts and the price of rhenium is over 20x the price of tungsten so even when they launched the retail price back then was about a hundred pounds. In todays day and age I think darts made from this alloy would have to be ridiculously expensive, in the multiple hundreds of pounds at a guess and we can't justify that for a material we're not 100% sure is strong enough. It is an existing alloy though, not one specifically made for darts back in the day.
For the eagle eyed and the collectors keep your eyes on eBay for the Rhenium darts to be listed. The other week I was just too late to land a set for myself but I think they come on from time to time.
Brass darts
Brass darts have always been the go to for beginners. And for good reason. They are affordable and they were the staple for decades before tungsten darts really became a thing. Brass darts still outsell tungsten darts globally.
Brass is a copper and zinc alloy and the brass used for darts has a density of around 8.5 g/cm³ - there are higher density brass alloys but some of these contain lead so are not safe for darts.
Titanium darts
Titanium is a great material but with a density of 4.51 g/cm³ it's essentially useless for making serious darts with. Nice as a gimmick and we use titanium compounds for the coatings on darts but a solid titanium dart is a no go. Far too expensive for what you are getting.
Wooden darts
A Loxley fan from America sent me some really cool "woodies" (thanks Drum). While wood is super light, these darts are a really fun thing to play with and every pro that has visited Loxley HQ has been given the challenge to hit a 180 with them. Most haven't gotten closer than a 140 but the first (and currently only) player to 180 with them was Jelle Klaasen. He was on a mission and didn't give up till he threw it.
Stainless steel darts
Stainless steel is such a common alloy that it usually comes in slightly cheaper than brass but with a density of just 7.85 - 8.0 g/cm³ I personally don't think the small price savings are worth it vs brass.
Nickel silver darts
Nickel silver is an alloy of copper, nickel and zinc. The silver in the name is referring to the colour (it does not contain actual silver). The density of nickel silver is usually 8.5 - 8.6 g/cm³ and the cost is between 50% more and double the price of brass.
Plastic darts
I think plastic darts generally refers to soft tip darts. But taking a look at plastic as a material, the densest plastic is teflon (PTFE) with a density of up to 2.3 g/cm³ but that's not particularly suitable for darts so darts is pretty much a no go for darts.
Rubber darts
Rubber is also a no go being as light as plastics. There have been darts made with a rubber sleave for grip but these never really took off, possibly because the points can stick into the rubber of a dart already in the board.
Ceramic darts
It must be a couple of decades ago now that Belgian company Grandslam Darts came out with ceramic darts. I'm not sure which type they used but Zirconia is one of the densest types at around the 6 mark. It's a nice idea and I've actually got a set at home and they fly surprisingly well considering they are 56mm long and 7.3mm wide.
Retriever Sports in the UK also used to make some ceramic coated darts together with a local jeweller who made them look flashy. I've got a few loose barrels here in the office as well but no full sets.
The problem with ceramic darts though is pretty obvious. A bounce out onto a hard floor can break them easily. But top marks for trying something unique and thinking out of the box.
What other materials are there in the world then?
When looking at high density materials I'm going to ignore the theoretical and CERN created elements and stick with the classic metals. The prices listed here are a guide (AI helped with some of the prices, collating them from various sources) with the exception of Np and Pu which are restricted materials.
| Rank | Metal | Symbol | Density (g/cm³) | Price (USD/kg) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Osmium | Os | 22.59 | 400,000 |
| 2 | Iridium | Ir | 22.56 | 233,000 |
| 3 | Platinum | Pt | 21.45 | 74,000 |
| 4 | Rhenium | Re | 21.02 | 6,200 |
| 5 | Neptunium | Np | 20.45 | n/a |
| 6 | Plutonium | Pu | 19.84 | n/a |
| 7 | Gold | Au | 19.30 | 167,000 |
| 8 | Tungsten | W | 19.25 | 235 |
| 9 | Uranium | U | 19.10 | 231 |
| 10 | Tantalum | Ta | 16.65 | 600 |
| 11 | Mercury | Hg | 13.55 (liquid) | 30 |
| 12 | Hafnium | Hf | 13.31 | 12,000 |
| 13 | Ruthenium | Ru | 12.45 | 45,000 |
| 14 | Rhodium | Rh | 12.41 | 380,000 |
| 15 | Palladium | Pd | 12.02 | 57,000 |
| 16 | Thallium | Tl | 11.85 | 4,200 |
| 17 | Thorium | Th | 11.70 | 287 |
| 18 | Lead | Pb | 11.34 | 2 |
| 19 | Silver | Ag | 10.49 | 2,900 |
| 20 | Molybdenum | Mo | 10.22 | 67 |
As we can see within the top 20 the only metals cheaper than tungsten are:
Uranium (this one was a surprise to me): very unsafe
Mercury: liquid and very unsafe
Lead: very unsafe
Molybdenum: safe but brittle
Of the other materials listed here Tantalum is interesting but over double the price of Tungsten currently but maybe one to keep an eye on or investigate further.
Molybdenum darts
Molybdenum is one I've dug much deeper into. While it is brittle I thought that like tungsten it could be alloyed up to strength. Unfortunately this isn't as easy as hoped, whilst there is the TMZ alloy at almost the same density as Moly, it still wouldn't be strong enough. Moly Nickel alloys would have to be diluted too much to get to a decent strength, but the biggest issue here is that price is also dependent on whether alloys already exist and exist in the right form to make darts. Custom making anything from scratch vastly increases the costs.
Edit: ChatGPT seems to think Molybdenum would be suitable for darts, from all research I disagree but it will be interesting to see if any darts brand actually tries this material. I doubt it as it's price is currently the price that tungsten was mid 2025 and the strength required for the rear thread seems to be the biggest issue but you never know.
Hastelloy B-2 darts, Hastelloy B-3 darts, Haynes 188 darts & Haynes 25 darts
So looking at existing alloys that incorporate Molybdenum I came down to Hastelloy and Haynes. There are dozens of alloys in these two ranges but all are trademarked by Haynes International. Other variations of these are called for example Alloy 188 and will be pretty much the same as the Haynes versions.
The density of these 4 alloys are as follows:
Hastelloy B-2 = 9.22
Hastelloy B-3 = 9.22
Haynes 188 = 9.14
Haynes 25 = 9.13
I picked these 4 as these are the 4 densest alloys (super alloys) and also suitable to make darts out of. While vastly lighter than tungsten alloys they would at least be a good step up from brass and existing brass variants. Alas these 4 are very specialised and do not readily come in billet for suitable for making darts. I've had quotes for making dart billets and whilst this material is not ridiculously expensive, the price just doesn't fit for making lower density darts. Even at large volumes the price is just too high.
Bismuth darts
Bismuth wasn't in the top 20 densest list bust it has a density of 9.78 which is denser than the above 4 alloys. Affordable yes but very fragile. Another no go, even in an alloy. There is one alloy that might work but there's zero price to density benefit.
Better than brass
Last stop on my journey then is finding the best, strongest, densest metal that fits into the low end brass market. Surely there's something readily available that's affordable that we can do that's better than brass?
I should add here that in China the price of brass has risen sharply recently as well, whereas the price in the UK has remained relatively stable. I'm not sure if the war in the Middle East and the war in Asia (Pakistan vs Afghanistan) will have any effect on the price of copper and in turn the price of brass?
The density of the brass used for darts is 8.4 to 8.5 whilst the density of Copper is 8.96 and the density of Nickel is 8.90 so what do we have there?
Constantan darts
Constantan is roughly 45% nickel and 55% copper with traces of iron and manganese and has a density of 8.90. Whilst not readily available in forms suitable for making darts, this material can be fairly easily made into billets or long rods. The price at large volumes comes in quite a bit more than brass but this one might be feasible. We are not talking brass priced darts so there will be a premium on them but this is doable. This is a backup option for me and a good one as this would be 100% Made in England using UK sourced materials.
Constantan is also known as 45/55 NiCu Resistance Wire, Hecnum, Eureka, Ferry, Vernicon, CuNi, T2 Constantan, Alloy 294 and Advance.
Common Constantan Properties:
Copper = 55%
Nickel = 42.4%
Manganese = 1%
Iron = 1%
Silicon = 0.5%
Carbon = 0.1%
I've been talking with a lot of suppliers about this material, I've got a quote but it's still steep even at fairly large volumes (enough for +-3,000 sets of darts). There is a question mark about the machining costs as well. The material isn't readily available in rod/billet form so we would have to have it drawn down, annealed, straightened and cut which for mass production is fine but for a sample to test the machining it's prohibitive. My guesstimate is that all in all we'd have to retail darts made of this at around the 30 euro mark which is too much for an entry level dart.
Marine Cupronickel darts
Finally we get to Cupronickel which commonly comes in three grades, 90% copper, 10% nickel or 70% copper, 30% nickel. I wouldn't want to go as high as 90% copper (for the looks and the smell) so I'm looking at the 70/30. As a reference the GBP 5, 10, 20 and 50 pence pieces, the US dollar nickel, quarter and dime, the Canadian quarter and dime, part of the €1 and €2 coins and many other currency coins are reportedly 75%/25% (also referred to as Coinage Cupronickel) so as far as looks, strength and smell we have a winner versus brass. Density of Cupronickel 70/30 is 8.94 so again an improvement on brass and all other current alternatives like stainless steel and nickel silver.
Another metal that isn't readily available in dart billet/rod sizes as they are usually 12-14 millimetres in diameter but I can get these custom made for Loxley which are suitable.
After extensive talks with many more suppliers about both 70/30 and 75/25 cupronickel I'm back to square one. I've had complete road blocks from some suppliers whilst I've also been quoted some obscene prices. Based on the composition of these metals cupronickel should be cheaper than constantan. I've had quotes double the price.
Monel 400 darts
I'm sure somebody will be thinking of other alloys like Monel 400. Unfortunately outside of primarily copper based alloys, either the price is going to be far too high or the density far too low. Monel 400 (Alloy 400) is lighter than the copper/nickel alloys and more expensive.
My conclusion (so far...)
Disappointed but not giving up.
I've had some fun investigating the elements, metals and alloys. I'm a nerd after all. But it's also cost me a lot of time. It's been frustrating at times due to not coming across many pro-active thinkers but on the positive side there are still a few people out there that really wanted to help me out, really wanted to find a solution that would work and I'm thankful for them.
I'm certain there is a solution for a new standard in the entry level darts category and I'll revisit this in the future. But with the wars in the Middle East, in Eastern Europe, in Africa and in Asia, it's not an easy time for anyone, anywhere. But I remain hopeful.
As for the high end of the darts market? I can see one darts brand making deals for trade-in tungsten through physical dart shops so they can carry on making recycled darts. Or perhaps a Target or Darts Corner will gazump them and do the same thing and ship the tungsten/darts back to their factories in China? That should buy some time for whomever can make the numbers work. I know that's what I would be doing if I had their budget and network.
But apart from that I don't really see any other alternatives other than hoping Canadian, Vietnamese or other countries tungsten mines come online to put some pressure on the Chinese. Currently UK/European tungsten is still more expensive than that from China.
3d printed tungsten is also not viable (yet). I've had a quote for £27 per individual dart and that's before machining the front and back (point and stem holes), packaging, etc. We can definitely make something spectacular with this technology but I don't want to be in the business of selling sets of darts for £300 plus.
Side Note
Loxley has recently stepped in to take over the Darts Nutz forum to save it from closing. We have expanded the 2nd hand darts section on there which during these tough times might provide a nice outlet for people looking to buy or sell on the 2nd hand market without the hassle and fees of the likes of eBay, etc.