If I could answer some previous readers questions to my past UniBlogs (with apologies to all for not replying sooner as home computer had been out of commission for a long while) hope the below is helpful:
1) To Jerry who had asked about some old Nicky Virachkul (apologies if I misspelled Nicky's last name!!). 21 gram darts. These were made by Accudart in the US. I have a set that I've had for many years, which came in a wooden hinged box, with the Accudart name and Nicky V's signature in white writing on the wooden box. I haven't seen any Accudart darts new or used in many years.
Back in the 1980's and 1990's Accudart used to advertise in the US dart magazine "Bull's Eye News". I don't recall seeing any ads from them in the past few years. They would probably be very difficult to find nowadays either new or used, but perhaps EBay might be a good searching point.
As far as the next closest dart barrel style currently in production to Nicky's dart, in terms of length, grip design, and overall shape, might be a set of Bobby George's darts, which are made by B & W in England, and would be readily available. Bobby's darts would have a similar straight barrel, with even grooves along much of the barrel, with a tapered nose at the front of the barrel, and a slight taper at the back end where the shaft threading is. Hope that helps?
2) To Angie who asked about an old set of TSL darts which she had. From information which Mr. Stanley Lowy MBE, Chairman of Unicorn, provided me, TSL stood for Thomas Salter, Ltd, who were sports goods retailers in England many years ago. I don't know what vintage your TSL darts would be but probably 1950's to early 1960's...
I myself have a set of "TSL" undyed feather flights in original cardboard box, and the feather flights are a push-in variety, rather than threaded adaptor variety, which leads me to believe that they probably date from WWII or early 1950's.
Unicorn was the first company to develop the threaded adaptor for feather flights when plastics became available after WWII.
3) To Keith Naylor -
Congratulations Keith on your "News of the World" successes, as well as your successes in "Indoor League"! Well done!
It was great fun to be able to buy various sets of your Schofield darts from you, and they were darts I was proud to add to my collection. Thanks for selling them to me, and thanks too for sending me your versions of your various darts games which you'd compiled. I enjoyed seeing footage of you playing in the "Indoor League" when the DVD
came out a few years ago, and it was fun to realize that the darts I'd previously purchased from you were the ones you were using on the DVD.
Thanks again for helping me add to my collection, and I hope that you are doing well!
4) To Brian who asked about his Jim Pike darts with threaded adaptors on the feather flights. Most of the brass Jim Pike and Leo Newstead darts I've seen have been the brass barrels with the push in cane shafts, and self fold paper flights. I do have one set of Jim Pike brass darts in a larger cardboard box which is undated, with a cellophane window on the top of the box, where the flights have such threaded adaptors. The threading is 1/4 BSF as other 1/4 BSF shafts will fit into the dart barrel, whereas the old type of cane shaft wouldn't fit into the barrel without a lot of shaving first to fit the hole.
As far as the vintage of the set that you have I would guess probably 1950's to early 1960's. I have some sets of 30 gram Jim Pike and 25 gram Leo Newstead darts which I purchased in the early 1990's, where they were the Brass and push in cane type of barrel with the gummed fold it yourself flights. The darts wallets they came in were modern nylon "bar wallet" type wallets with the famous "Jim Pike" fish logo same as on the darts on the wallet.
I have other older sets of Jim Pike and Leo Newstead darts in small blue cardboard boxes dating from the mid 1960's. The Jim Pike dated 1965 set is opened, whereas the Leo Newstead set dating 1966 is still unopened with the original factory tape unopened. Both of those boxes with the brass and cane darts were much smaller than the box used for the feather flight set. Hope that helps?
5) To Chris who asked about Leighton Rees's darts.
Leighton's darts were manufactured by KWIZ darts in England. He used a 26 gram tungsten dart, but instead of plastic or aluminum factory made shafts he used to cut his own shafts from cane, and shape them to fit his dart. I purchased a set of his darts about 15 years ago from Frank Johnson's Sports Goods, Ltd in London, after seeing them advertised in the monthly ads they used to run in Darts World magazine. The set I have came with the standard factory made nylon shafts, and picture flights.
Since Leighton's unfortunate passing away in 2003, I've not seen any sets of his darts available anywhere, although for a time after his passing Frank Johnson's Sports Goods in London still had some sets of his darts available in a 30 gram weight. I've not seen sets of his darts available anywhere since then, and don't know whether Frank Johnson's might have any left these years later. EBay might be a good resource for finding a used set, although I've not seen any sets of his darts come up for sale. His book, Leighton Rees On
Darts, is a great read and although out of print, generally available on EBay.
6) To Dan who asked about his Unicorn Concord darts patent #64945 9/66. These sound like well worth hanging onto.
I think anything with a patent, or patent pending number would be worth hanging onto vs perhaps a later model of the dart that might not have the patent number on the box or dart or flight, etc. For example I have some versions of Unicorn's two tone "Adaptor" flights with a creme threaded adaptor that have a patent number on them, and then later plastic flights that don't have a patent number on them. I don't know anything about valuation, but as a collector, finding something with a patent number might mean it was an earlier issue of an item, and potentially rarer.
As far as learning more about the model number or weight, might I suggest the Historical section of Unicorn's website. Check out the 1967 catalogue from their archives. Hope that helps?
7) To Warren Ackary - Cheers Warren - and it's been fun to have chatted over the phone and via e-mail - best of success with your growing collection of darts memorabilia!
8) To Phil who asked about Unicorn darts with a spiral grip - I don't know of any sets either brass or tungsten with such a spiral grip. I know that in the late 1980's early 1990's Unicorn made tungsten darts called the Gripper model which at that time had raised triangular bumps along the barrel. The current Unicorn Gripper darts have ridges along the barrel. Again Unicorn's website is a great resource about their products then, and now. Good luck - hope you can find what you need !