Darts Cleaning Day ( How I Roll ...Like a Kaiser )

 Darts Cleaning Day

After a few months my darts start getting a little slick. Mind you they are well "seasoned", about 6 years old. I could get some new ones, but these are like a pair of well worn shoes, familiar and comfortable ...Except for that slick part. They do make these darts (LaserDarts Silver Eagles) with a Black Oxide and Gold Nitride. Believe it or not, as dense as tungsten is, it's a porous metal and will absorb the oils from your hands after a while. Coatings like Black Oxide and Gold Nitride help seal out those oils and maintain the sharpness of the grooves and knurling. Probably should have went that way, but I didn't and here we are.

Brush them off first with a small wire brush. I choose stainless. Then soak them in degreaser. Good to have gloves when working with degreaser. 

Before I didn't get a before before picture so this will have to work as the before picture.

I have a drill press, but a hand drill will work. I used to use a hand drill. I use a jewelers file to clean the grooves out. You don't want reshape the grooves as mush as clean them. I use a rosin bag to keep my hands dry. Rosin and oils from my hands is what I'm mostly cleaning out. You can see in the picture to the right, the file is smooth. 

Lets compare ...Much Cleaner ...Just one more step.

Break out the torch and burn out any and all oils and hand residues. How much heat? I get them dark cherry red like the middle one. Around 1000 degrees nowhere near the melting point of tungsten. Tungsten melts around 6000 degrees. You could go bright yellow around 2000, but then your going to have to wait for it to cool, 

One cool effect is, they will turn black. It lasts a couple days

Finished. They are clean and have noticeably more grip. I must note if you are doing this to steel point darts, you will most likely have to reset the points. This is also a good time to replace them if need be. 

"....You know, Watergate hurt

But nothing really ever changed

A teeny bit quieter but we still play our little games

But we still play our little games

But we still play our little games

We still play our little, we still play our little, we still play our little

We still play a lot of games!

I am the owl

I am the owl

I seek out the foul

Wipe 'em away, keep America free

Wipe 'em away, keep America free

Wipe 'em away, keep America free

For clean living folks like me!" 

- D.K. , I Am The Owl