Carbon fibers, when embedded in a suitable “matrix” polymer, produce a composite material of exceptional tensile strength, rigidity, and yet lightness. These properties would seem to make the material ideal for dart shafts, but there is one problem. As the debris from two Formula One cars coming together often shows, it can be prone to brittle fracture.

Unicorn were researching into overcoming this issue as far back as the 1980s, but it is only now that advances in materials and manufacturing techniques have finally enabled Unicorn carbon shafts to be made available to the darting public.

What’s more, those same techniques have allowed a carbon fiber screw-in nose cone to be a feature of the latest Sigma dart, ensuring the replaceable point is held firmly in a structure light enough for those highly-tuned Sigma aerodynamic characteristics to be maintained.

Carbon darting is finally here.