When I got back to the forum, I was around 11 pages behind on the thread and was reading to catch up. That was not directed toward to you at all. I had simply been reading other messages and was answering some of them and had inadvertently hit the reply to your message when I responded because it was the one I was on. So, I was making a generic comment based on what others had asked.
Mind if I ask what you're washing yours with? I was having some issues with detergents working their way to the surface of the oils and causing some patchiness and also ended up oiling those sets twice like you did. Eventually, I just started doing a quick rinse wipe with water. Like you, I found a lot of older chips to be quite thirsty as well.
That is very impressive and also, most welcome. I spent a lot of time in trial and error on that experiment, and glad that I did and was able to share it. You could potentially start yourself a chip cleaning business for poker rooms and casinos if you decide to go largescale with it, if you haven't already. Sounds like you're making money doing it, and that's awesome.
I think the frequency will indeed depend on the amount of use and the type of chips that were oiled. My personal intention was to attempt sealing the new chips with the oil, and then touching them up as needed thereafter (work hard once, and work light after). Thus, the birth of the compression oiling idea. Professionally, my company does this on a largescale basis with surfaces much larger than poker chips with everything from sealing, impregnation, encapsulation, etc., so I was certainly hoping this method would achieve a similar outcome. The original set used in the trial probably could have used some touching up sooner, but it seemed only the blue $50 Milanos (rarely used) were really noticeable. Ultimately, I went ahead and touched them up at the 5 year mark whether needed or not, but these were also oiled when new and kept in constant use. I did not compression oil them during the touch-up, but rather, rolled the edges 20 chips at a time. Based on what I know about surfaces in general, when there is wear, they will be more porous than unworn surfaces, so I would expect that used chips would be much more thirsty/porous than new ones--especially if they'd never been compression oiled prior. Similar to vinyl composites and other often sealed surfaces with various traffic frequencies.
Absolutely correct.
This answers my question above. On used chips, I imagine this is a must. Are you using OC on new ones as well?
Actually, the mineral oil is a penetrating agent and the alkanes and cycloalkanes are made up of acyclic and monocyclic saturated hydrocarbons that don't exactly evaporate in the traditional sense when appearing to dry out. Mineral oil itself isn't evaporating, but rather, oxidizing and hardening on the surfaces, which is why it ultimately dries out when exposed to oxygen molecules and also makes a good sealant on microscopic porous surfaces (such as poker chips) whose outer edges are exposed to the elements.
I have no idea what makes me an "expert."
I do not recall making that claim. I did not speak "absolute truths" by making this thread or otherwise. I merely shared my experiences and documented the journey. I also never once said that re-oiling would never be necessary. I said that I do not believe "compression oiling" is necessary "again" after being performed on new chips, but rather, touch-up oiling whenever necessary. People were either claiming, or leading people to believe that I claimed, they need to break their hands performing compression oiling, and I was trying to clear that claim up. Obviously the oiling isn't going to hurt the chips, and if they need done again or touched up, then by all means. I never suggested or said otherwise, nor would I ever make that claim. When I said sealed, I was referring to initial sealing, not touching up with re-oiling. It will not hurt it, however, to do it again. I just do not believe resealing to be necessary unless a considerable amount of time has passed, or the chips were old/heavily used--but touching them up with re-oiling, most certainly should be done. Condition is a factor, but ultimately, I was referring to new chips properly sealed before use.
Fully agree with this. Thus why this method has been effective.
We definitely found our blues and purples doing this after extended periods of not being used--including on the brand new sets.
