Winmau Blade 4 Bristle Dartboard

Simply the best professional level sisal dartboard available today. I needed to replace the boards in our dart area, and since we needed several boards, I decided to use the opportunity to really find out which one of the top contenders was the best. We ordered a Bull's Advantage II, a Puma Bandit, a 180 Gladiator II, a Unicorn Eclipse Pro, a Nodor Suprawire Pro, and the Winmau Blade 4 Dual Core with Rota Lock. While all of these boards are great and have their pros and cons to them. The only board in my opinion that earned 10 out of 10 across the scale was the Winmau Blade 4 Dual Core. It is in a class all by itself as it has all pros, and no cons. The spider is thinner and more secured to the board than all the rest. The colors are bright, vibrant, and tough. The dual core sisal from Kenya catches and holds the darts noticeabley better than the rest. It heals itself without leaving visible holes that disappear after a few minutes. the sisal doesn't pull out when your dart is extracted, there are no sisal bunch lines visible in the white beds, bounce outs are virtually eliminated, it can be leveled and locked into place with no wiggle or wobble utilizing the Rota Lock system on the back, it is simply the best of the bunch, and the finest board I have ever owned. Until someone out there invents something better (I don't see how), I will never buy anything other than the Blade 4 Dual Cores in the future. For those interested, my second choice would be the 180 Gladiator II. My third would be a srandard Winmau Blade 4. Unicorn boards, while used on the tele for most tournaments. It is only because they pay obscene endorsement fees for the privilege, nit because they're the best. Unicorn boards while aesthetically pleasing to the eye, are made in China, and simply not all their made out to be. The Bandit by Puma is an outstanding board and my only real complaints with them are the eed and black bull's eye, the type of sisal they use, and the fact that the spiders seem to start lifting off the board after a month or two of heavy playing. Bull's Advantage II, take a while to break in and until then have a lot of bounce outs. Their bull's eye wires are also thick and bunched up around the outside ring, and have a problem with the spider lifting up as well. Nodor makes a fine board and they always have. The spider and wires are the big complaint with their boards, as well as the inks used on some of the models. The Winmau Blade 4 Dual Core is in my opinion as good as a dartboard can get. I can't think of anything they could do to make it better than it is. if your someone who is really into your dart game, and wants the best, or you just want a personal home use board that looks great and will last you for years and years. Look no further than the Winmau Blade 4 Dual Core.

Love this board, love the look and the feel, very high quality sisal dartboard. Very rarely have a dart bounce off. And if they do, it is generally because of a bad throw where you accidentally hit the numbers or wires. Board size is about 17.5" in diameter.The back of the board has three screws "feet" that allow you to set the tightness against the wall. This board was first mounted against a wall by the screw on the back. This is sometimes difficult to set the board and get it tight against the wall using only the middle screw. With the three feet on the outside, you can adjust the tension from the wall to the board by tightening the set screws, making the board more solid against the wall.When I mounted the board inside the dart cabinet, I was able to screw through the back of the cabinet into the back of the dartboard to hold it in place. Very solidly built, not worried about the screws pulling out of the back.

This was a big disappointment. Several years ago I purchased a Unicorn Eclipse board. At that time they (Unicorn) were making razor-sharp spiders with no staples and a Sisal fiber bristle board. My dear friend loved my board and I gave it to him as a gift thinking that I could replace it without issue. I was wrong. I have since purchased the Eclipse HD and found it severely lacking in quality. While I did not experience bounce outs, I was actually able to embed darts in the spider. So, I bought this board. What a mistake. It is not a Sisal fiber bristle board, but some imposter that likely cost less to make. One cannot tell that the board I gave my friend has even been used for years, while this board, having been used only a few times shows holes from previous throws. See photos

Very good dart board - but is it worth 400% of what a dartboard costs (including 3 or 6 darts usually) at a big local store that seems to have locations in every town and city in America?I got the "Dual Core" version of the Blade 4 because it seemed to make sense to have a board that was a bit softer on the surface and then a bit more dense a little further in. All very logical, and the difference in price between the "dual core" and the regular "Blade 4" seemed small considering that it should last for a very long time (or if not, then it would take a lot of use to wear it out more quickly)...either way I looked at this as a one-time purchase that I didn't see any reason for regretting - and so far, I still feel that same way.However, that is comparing it to the Winmau Blade 4 (standard - not "dual core")....comparing it to a dartboard that is made essentially the same way but costs $15-20 is a different thing entirely.I read all the reviews and thought Great!!! no more "bounce outs"....but maybe it's because I'm a beginner and I'm just throwing too many darts between removing them (I have 4 sets, so 12 darts) - that is just too many darts on the board after the first 3 - 5 (or so) to not get "bounce outs" that are due to one dart hitting another....Still, it does seem to get less "bounce outs" than my $20 board, but how much of a difference it makes I really couldn't guess....20% less? 50% less? the same? No way for me to really know.I am happy now that the "pain" of paying almost $80 (with shipping) is over and I'll probably have this board as long as I live, but even I (who never had a dartboard until a few months ago - or owned a dart for that matter) can think of improvements that would seem easy enough without making the board more expensive to manufacture. First off (as others have mentioned) - the numbers could be more legible. Certainly if the numbers were printed on the board itself (like the logos) that would make it look great, but I realize the reason for the metal ring with the numbers welded on is so the ring can be rotated to even out the wear on the board (I have to wonder if I'll ever get that much use out of the board that I'd ever need to rotate the thing, but only time will tell) - Still, the numbers could be a bit thicker and probably shaped a little better (the number "eleven" in particular looks almost like a "W").I do like the three adjustable "feet" that allow the board to stay vertical to the ground (parallel to the wall)....my much less expensive board came with little rubber "feet" but they weren't close to being long enough to make the board stay vertical (I guess their purpose is more to prevent the board from scratching the wall it's mounted on).I used the same mounting bracket that I had put on the wall for the cheaper board - works perfectly and meant I didn't need to put more holes in the wall!I thought all the boards were a standard size and I guess they are (unless clearly labelled as being smaller than 18"...but I bought a Viper foam rubber "wall protector" (or whatever the right term is) that is a ring that fits around the board and takes the hits of darts that would otherwise miss the board completely (I haven't yet missed badly enough to hit the wall outside the foam ring (so far! lol).. but the foam has caught enough misses to make it a great investment!! (think it was not much more than $20 - hard to believe I now have about $100 invested in a dart board!!! - and even bought a set of tungsten darts for more than I care to admit to (then found what are supposedly tungsten darts for $5 including shipping from China - no idea if they are actually tungsten or not?I didn't know whether to give the board 5 stars or not. It's certainly made very well and I can't think of anything (other than the size and shape of the numbers) that would make the board better. As for the "dual core" - I have no way of knowing if it's effective or not, but the logic to it seems solid.I'll give it 4 stars because it seems like a 5 star product with a 6 star price.If I had to do it over again, I would buy this dart-board again. Is it worth the almost $80? I guess that's a personal call...on the other hand I would definitely buy the protectivee rubber wall protector even if I used it on the cheapest dartboard I could find (which is exactly what I did - I had the wall protector on my $15 dart board a few weeks before I "upgraded" (mostly in the hopes of eliminating the "bounce outs" which has been a bit of a disappointment...So 4 stars as a compromise!