Well that was a solid thought out response that I absolutely respect!
So here is my next question... they claim that Mineral Oil does not evaporate... but if you oil dry chips and let them lay out for 48 hours, the color is bright but when you wipe them nothing comes off... if it doesn't evaporate then where does the oil go?? Also even oiled chips after sitting for a few months will go back to the dry Claukly state (yes to those that don't know, even if you oil your chips and don't like it, they will be chunky again soon)
But again if it doesn't evaporate and that is known to be 100% factual then again where is it going if not into the chip themselves?
BCCs for exaplmple are a very dense grainy Clay composition, you can oil new minty BCCs every day for a week straight, let them sit over night and the next day they will be totally dry. The rag you applied the oil with is still wet, why not the chips?
Serious question that I would love to hear an opinion on. Again for the record my opinion is that the oil is absorbed into to pores of the chip, there for internally lubricating them/ conditioning.
As far as this lubrication doing anything at all for the chips... shuffle an un oiled minty barrel of
RHC chips that are not oiled in one spot for 15 minutes. There will be chip dust around where you are shuffling. Do the same thing with an oiled barrel and see the difference.
Maybe not major but definitely a difference. Those D' esprit chips were nine dry after 25 plus years not being in use. Drop one on a hard wood floor from 3ft (typical height of a poker table) ouch more than likely a flea bite where it hit. Wash, oil and dry that same chip and drop it from 3 ft. Willing to bet you not a single mark. Again we do this every single day. I haven't dropped 1 or 2 chips, it is easily in the hundreds, dog bumps the drying table, whatever, not saying we do it on purpose but it definitely happens.
Last Sunday morning after 14 hours of poker I was cleaning up and went to grab a case of minty
RHC spotted tourney chips. Had no idea the case was slightly opened
View attachment 791664
Yup, to the floor they went. A hard time floor. In total I saw one tiny flea bite... if they were dry un conditioned chips... well, we might not of been as lucky. No not a full 3 ft drop and only a few fell a couple feet but they definitely didn't hit the floor lightly.
Again it is ok for us all to have different opinions here, I just personally highly suggest cleaning and oiling chips.