Winmau Blade 5

PRODUCT: Dartboard

MODEL: Winmau Blade 5

PRICE: £30 – £33

Date Reviewed: 13th March 2017

I reviewed the Winmau Blade 5 Dual Core board back in Novemeber of last year, so I thought it a good idea to review the standard Blade 5 too and see exactly what is different.

The boards retail for around £30 – £33 in most shops but as most of you know we lucky ones in the UK were able to pick them up recently from Argos for £20 as they were a replacement for the out of stock Blade 4, so it was a pretty amazing buy at that price.

With the Blade 4 Dual Core it differed from the standard Blade 4 in that it had the dual layers of sisal and also the Rota Lock wheels. The standard Blade 5 also has the Rota Lock wheels now so the main difference is the fact the Dual Core has the two layers of sisal and also a seamless surface, probably because of the two layers, whereas the standard Blade 5 has visible veins which some people like so its not a problem and is obviously what most people are used to seeing anyway.

Both versions of the board have the new smaller triangular wire spider which is very flush to the surface and of course being thinner it allows for a slightly increased scoring bed.

Just like the Dual Core the inking is nice and deep and no visible issues to alarm, it is all very neat.

The board comes packaged very similarly to the Dual Core also, with instruction booklet and credit card sized checkout chart and all the fittings.

The fittings for the Rota Lock wheels which if you dont know allows you to level the board out on the wall and keep it tight in place. The screw for the board has a flanged section to allow space for the wheels to be fitted and when its on the wall you unscrew the wheels so they press against the wall to lock the board in position.

Well there is not a whole lot different between this and the Dual Core. Apart from the things I mention above its still a great board that looks and performs well. Initially I thought the standard may be a little firmer than the Dual Core but having had more time to test the two and push a dart in various areas its a little more difficult to tell, its possible the Dual Core has a slightly firmer feel when you push the dart beyond its top layer of sisal and the standard B5 seemed to have a few spots where it felt more soft, possibly because of the way the biscuits join and may not be as dense around the biscuits edges.

But both boards are not that hard anyway, they are fairly soft feeling boards so may be too soft for some but I think thats the same with anything with darts, we like darts for various reasons and also we like boards for varying reasons too.

So still a very good board but I am not sure which will last the longest, my guess is it will be the Dual Core due to the two layers of sisal, but with the standard Blade 4 and the B4 Dual Core the fact the Dual Core also had the Rota Lock system made it a better buy in my eyes but now the standard Blade 5 has that I dont think the difference is big enough to warrant the extra money.

I am not sure the Dual Core is going to last that much longer than the standard which is the unknown part at present but if it does then I guess the extra £12 or so may be worth it but I think most people will be more than happy with the standard Blade 5 🙂