Over the years dartboards have been made from various materials including elm, cork, bristle, compressed paper and even plasticine.

Some of the material has major disadvantages. For instance boards made from elm needed to be kept damp otherwise they became brittle and hard which blunted the darts. On the other hand because plasticine is so soft, boards made from it often needed to be rolled flat. And if that was not a problem the smell could easily put players off their game. However this problem was solved in 1930 when the London based No Odour Company developed plasticine that did not smell - of course it still needed rolling!

Dartboards made of compressed paper have been popular for many years, especially because they are cheap to produce. However serious players only use boards made from bristle. These are made, not from animal hair as the name suggests, but from plant fibre, normally sisal. The sisal, which is usually imported from Africa, is made into "biscuits" which in turn are compressed into a round dartboard shape. These shapes are then mounted onto a chipboard or plywood sub-base, before being colour printed and wired.