The Leo Newstead darts were made by the Jim Pike company and are a little longer than the Pike darts, they are also a bit rarer as there is more Pikes than Newstead about. I have a 3 sets.

These are 24g in a Pike box:

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229. Leo Newstead's 24g by dazdart, on Flickr

These 25g, in an original albeit battered Newstead box, these are a much earlier set:

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286. Very Early set Leo Newsteads 25g by dazdart, on Flickr

Another 25g set:

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1a. Leo Newsteads by dazdart, on Flickr

I think you should give me a set......

You should have bid on the last set I had on Ebay they went cheap at £10.99, they used to go for £25+

My first darts were a Leo Newstead set that I bought brand new when I was so much younger than I am now. They had push-in canes and, of course, paper flights. After WW2 Jim Pike set up his company and had made his own signature darts plus those of two of his News of the World Team of Champions teammates, namely Leo Newstead and Johnny Ross. The fourth member of the Team had been a player named Harry Head but for some unknown reason his 'name' darts were never made. I believe Johnny Ross darts are the rarest of the Jim Pike range. They had/have a smooth barrel and for some reason (unknown to me) proved very popular in South Africa!

Was brass the very first metal they used for darts or did they try other metals first?

Originally darts were made of wood and imported in their hundreds of thousands from France. (Yes, darts is (partly) French!!!) To begin with they were only available in one weight but then lead was added either around the barrel (a process called 'banding') or 'injected' into the barrel (called 'loaded') and thus variations of weight (usually light, medium and heavy) appeared.

As far as I can tell, brass was always the metal of choice for darts manufacture until of course tungsten arrived. It was easily machineable but also resilient and strong. I have a catalogue dated 1929/30 which shows the wooden French darts as well as brass "Trueflight" darts (manufactured by NODOR) and 'cane and brass ferruled darts', the latter 'Light' retailing at nine shillings (that's 45p) for a box of three dozen darts!

lol I wish darts were that cheap now! 45p!