Winmau’s PDC tournament board changed hands in January 2026. The Blade X took over as the official board of every televised event, ending the Blade 6 Triple Core’s four-year run in the role. Both boards are still in production, both are built to the same competition standard, and the honest answer to which one to buy depends more on your budget than on which is “better”.
We have reviewed both in full elsewhere on this site. This page pulls the two comparisons together so you can see where they actually differ, rather than treating “newer” as automatically “better”.
This article contains affiliate links. We may earn a commission if you make a purchase at no extra cost to you.
Quick Comparison
| Winmau Blade X | Winmau Blade 6 Triple Core | |
|---|---|---|
| PDC status | Official board since January 2026 | Official board 2022 to 2026 |
| Sisal | Premium African, bed 13% deeper than any previous Winmau board | Dense East African, three-layer Triple Core construction |
| Wiring | Ultra-slim, 60% thinner, 60° deflection | Ultra-thin sixth-generation Blade, 60° deflection |
| Bullseye | Standard 50 inner bull, 25 outer bull | Fully hardened, 25% thinner than earlier generations |
| Number ring | Laser-cut steel, rotates 360° without removal | Removable, laser-cut, anti-glare finish |
| Backboard | Pro Core layered hardwood bonded with carbon fibre | Standard backing with carbon fibre reinforced base |
| Warranty | Five years, home use only | Not specified by Winmau |
| Typical price | £100 to £120 | £80 to £90 |
Price and Value
The clearest difference between these two boards is what they cost. The Blade X sits at £100 to £120, while the Blade 6 Triple Core has settled at £80 to £90 since losing its place on the PDC stage. That is a meaningful gap for what both brands present as a home and club dartboard, and it is the single biggest factor in most people’s decision.
Reviewers and owners are fairly blunt about this. The Blade X’s price draws regular criticism, with one darts forum user summing up the reaction to the RRP: “125 quid for a board quite frankly is taking liberties.” Nobody makes the equivalent complaint about the Blade 6 Triple Core, which now reads as a bargain for a board that spent four years under PDC television lights.
Sisal and Construction
Both boards use a layered approach to sisal, but the numbers differ. Winmau quotes the Blade X’s sisal bed as 13% deeper than any previous Winmau board, built from premium African sisal with a density above 5.5 million fibres. The Blade 6 Triple Core uses a three-layer system instead: a softer outer layer for dart penetration, firmer middle and inner layers for retention and self-healing, and a carbon fibre reinforced base for rigidity.
Both are designed to solve the same problem, holding darts securely while recovering quickly after each throw, and owner feedback on both boards is positive about how the sisal performs in practice. The Blade X’s backboard goes a step further with Pro Core, a layered hardwood base bonded with carbon fibre that Winmau says keeps the surface consistent as the board ages. The Blade 6 Triple Core’s carbon fibre reinforcement sits in the sisal base itself rather than a separate backboard layer.
Wiring and the Bounce-Out Debate
Both boards use Winmau’s angled wire design, set at 60 degrees to deflect darts into the board rather than away from it. The difference is thickness: Winmau quotes the Blade X’s wiring as 60% thinner than the Blade 6, which on paper should mean less metal for a dart to strike and fewer bounce-outs.
That claim has become genuinely contested. Since the Blade X took over the PDC stage, several professionals, including Gabriel Clemens, Gary Anderson and Martin Schindler, have publicly blamed the board for bounce-outs at televised events. Winmau disputes this firmly, arguing the board statistically produces fewer bounce-outs than any predecessor and that many incidents blamed on the wire actually involve a dart striking another dart or a flight.
Stage conditions are not home conditions
The PDC fits a fresh board for every match at major tournaments, so no single Blade X takes sustained punishment on television the way a home board does over months of practice. Cold stage conditions and camera scrutiny have also been suggested as factors in the professional complaints. Owner feedback from people using the Blade X at home consistently reports fewer bounce-outs than on older boards, which is the opposite of the story making headlines on tour.
Nobody has raised the equivalent complaint about the Blade 6 Triple Core. It played on the same PDC stage for four years without generating a public dispute about bounce-outs, which is worth weighing against the Blade X’s unresolved controversy if that kind of scrutiny matters to your buying decision.
Number Ring and Long-Term Wear
The Blade X’s number ring is the more significant upgrade of the two. It rotates through a full 360 degrees without ever being removed from the board, which makes spreading wear across the segments a much less fiddly job than on most boards. The Blade 6 Triple Core’s number ring is also laser-cut and anti-glare, but it has to be unclipped and refitted to rotate it, the more traditional approach most premium boards still use.
If you practise heavily enough that rotation is a regular chore rather than an occasional one, the Blade X’s ring is a genuine quality-of-life improvement. For less frequent rotation, the difference matters less.
Warranty and What’s in the Box
The Blade X is the first Winmau board sold with a five-year warranty, covering manufacturing defects but excluding normal wear, cosmetic fading, and any use outside the home, meaning pub, club or league venues void it. Winmau has not published an equivalent warranty term for the Blade 6 Triple Core.
The Blade X also arrives in a more elaborate package: a display box, a checkout card, a spirit level, a Rota-Lock fixing kit, magnetic accessory clamp points, and a set of Blade X Fusion flights with a flight case. The Blade 6 Triple Core’s box is simpler, the board itself, the Rota-Lock mounting system, and the Spirit Master levelling tool, without the extra accessories.
Which Should You Buy
For most players, the Blade 6 Triple Core is the smarter buy. It held the PDC tournament role for four years, the Triple Core sisal and sixth-generation wiring are proven in both professional and home use, and it now costs noticeably less than the board that replaced it. There is no public bounce-out controversy attached to it, and reviewer feedback is consistently strong.
The Blade X makes sense if you want the exact board currently used on the PDC stage and are happy to pay for the newest engineering: the rotating number ring, the deeper sisal, and the five-year warranty are real improvements. Just go in aware of the price jump and the unresolved bounce-out debate on the professional circuit, even though home feedback so far does not echo it.
Read the full Blade X review →
View Blade X on AmazonRead the full Blade 6 Triple Core review →
View Blade 6 Triple Core on AmazonRelated Guides
- Best Dartboards 2026 — The full ranked buying guide, including both these boards
- How to Set Up a Dartboard — Correct height, distance, and mounting
- Darts Rules: Everything You Need to Know — Official measurements, scoring, and match formats
Ready to practise on whichever you choose? Try our Play Darts game or work on your finishes with the Checkout Practice drill.