Oiling Chips Done Right (4 Viewers)

[Poker Zombie]

That's an interesting technique. You've used it on other chips before that have since seen many hours of play, right? How does this method hold up over time? I thought that since oil doesn't evaporate, you needed to work it into the chip's pores. Here, you're just applying it to the surface.

I oiled my first CPS chips, maybe 3 years ago. I've oiled CPC chips in April 2015. Nothing has ever needed oil to be re-applied.

Chips will naturally get oiled by handling them. The more they are played, the more oil they will collect - unless you play while wearing nitrile gloves. Who knows what measures people will take with the coronavirus? Otherwise, the first coat of oil is sufficient until the build-up of oil gets to the point you need to wash the chips.

I've never known anyone to wash their China clay chips except to remove factory dust, and most home game chips will never see enough action to build up "hooker-juice" gunk.

 

[Hornet]

Many of those variations are dependent upon the specific type of chips being oiled, although the common denominators are a) less oil is better than more oil, b) avoid getting oil on inlays and/or labels, and c) leave no residual oil on finished chips before use.

• Ceramics -- no oil
• Plastics -- no oil
• China clays -- minimal oil, more cosmetic than protective
• Paulson chips -- minimal oil, more protective than cosmetic
• TRK chips -- minimal oil, helps both causes
• TRK, ASM/CPC chips -- minimal oil, helps both causes, really enhances rolling edges
• BCC chips -- minimal oil, helps both causes, really enhances rolling edges, can lessen the effects of batch color variation and marbling effect often found on BCC chips

Clay chips tend to soak up more oil, especially BCC chips and ASM/CPC edges. Recently-cleaned chips using detergents (Dawn, TSP, or Oxi-Clean) will take on (and often need) more oil and need longer soak times.

I plan to use the barrel edge rolling method for my new set of BCCs. And then wipe the faces of each chip individually with a dry cloth. How long would you recommend letting the oiled barrel sit before using the dry cloth to wipe each chip?

 

[BGinGA]

I plan to use the barrel edge rolling method for my new set of BCCs. And then wipe the faces of each chip individually with a dry cloth. How long would you recommend letting the oiled barrel sit before using the dry cloth to wipe each chip?

I used light full-face oiling on my BCCs, and let the oiled chips sit/soak on towels for an hour or so (chips were on a make-shift assembly line -- layout, apply, flip, apply, flip, soak time, wipedown, sit time, final wipe/rack).

New BCC chips can soak up a lot of oil. I wiped off, let them sit overnight, and wiped-off again while racking.

 

[JMC9389]

These were chalky, mint CPC's before....

...and after using this technique.

 

[DWilkes36]

Great process. I do this exact method for my Paulson Pharaohs and they look amazing.

 

[arch3r]

Just a bit of edge oiling on my new CPCs...

Before..

one barrel done.

three barrels (can you tell which ones )

And the full rack. Ahhh, so pretty.

 

[BearMetal]

Just a bit of edge oiling on my new CPCs...

Can you describe the method that you used to edge oil them? They came out very nice. I've got some mint Paulsons that I think only need the edges. Normally I take 10 chips, and rub the oiled cloth around them, and then put them right into the rack.

 

[Jeevansluck]

Can you describe the method that you used to edge oil them? They came out very nice. I've got some mint Paulsons that I think only need the edges. Normally I take 10 chips, and rub the oiled cloth around them, and then put them right into the rack.

@arch3r is a much more senior chipper with hella more experience than me, but I do own a CPC set of chips, so my .01 cent of feedback is..

Personally, I've first wiped the barrels down with a damp cloth. A little wetter than damp. Let air dry.

Then, I prepare a microfiber cloth with a "dab" of Mineral Oil. Using alot of pressure with my hands, I oil the barrels by rotating the barrels in hand and pushing hard all at once. The oil will migrate in between each chip too. Then once done the barrel, I take each chip individually, and wipe away excess. Then let dry. Repeat next barrel.

You can do 5 chips or 10 chips. I also tried these numbers. My hands are big, and 20 just felt the best. I do apply a fair amount of pressure so having too few chips made it more difficult. YMMV

I also pre-wipe the chip racks for storage with a coating of Mineral oil. Very light. Just from what was left on the microfiber cloth from the original single dab of Mineral oil.

 

[BearMetal]

So, my method has been similar. I choose to do 10 at a time. I actually just use the leftover oil on my oily rag for this - no new oil. I take my half-barrel, clamp down on it with my thumb/pointer fingers across the edges with the rack, and then I spin them the best I can with my free hand. Pressure + 2 rotations. Then they go right into the rack. No need for any face wiping.

What I've found is that this works great when you've just oiled the chip faces. But it's much hard to rotate the 10 chips between my fingers if I haven't. In the case of new Paulsons, they almost grind to a halt between my fingers (compared to used/oiled chips).

 

[arch3r]

Can you describe the method that you used to edge oil them? They came out very nice. I've got some mint Paulsons that I think only need the edges. Normally I take 10 chips, and rub the oiled cloth around them, and then put them right into the rack.

That is exactly what I do for CPCs, but I do a barrel at a time. Just a little oil on the cloth, spin the barrel in the oiled cloth and put back in the rack. Then after the rack is done, use the clean part of the rag to wipe the barrels off in the rack. Takes no time to do. Then I just let them dry and repeat if necessary.

 

[allforcharity]

Just keep the barrel in a spare rack. Wipe the exposed edges. Rotate the barrel. Wipe the exposed edges. Rotate the barrel. After 3 wipes the whole barrel should be done and you don't have to hold a barrel of oily chips in your hand.

 

[Wyldfyre]

Great process. I do this exact method for my Paulson Pharaohs and they look amazing.

I'm in the process of doing these for my Pharaohs as well....Apache...China Clays...but I'm happy with what I'm seeing.


Thanks to the OP for the information.

 

[TomC727]

I got around to oiling just the edges. Did stacks of 20 using a micro fiber and 2 caps of mineral oil. I love the look of them even more. Here’s the comparisons.

All I did was push hard on the microfiber and rolled the stacks until the oil was applied evenly.

 

[Coyote]

I 'm not sure, but I think you might have over-oiled them.
You may wipe the barrels' edges with a clean, dry microfiber cloth and use this cloth (now slightly oiled) for the faces.

 

[BearMetal]

I 'm not sure, but I think you might have over-oiled them.
You may wipe the barrels' edges with a clean, dry microfiber cloth and use this cloth (now slightly oiled) for the faces.

Yeah, if I'm doing edge oiling only, I either just use an older oily cloth without adding any extra. Or I do 1 to 2 drops per 100.

So after letting them dry, you might find a lot of pooled up oil on the edges that'll you need to wipe away. Rotate the barrel, and put back in. I guess repeat until you don't see oiling building up on the barrel edges where they touch the rack.

 

[TomC727]

I’m going to let them dry and then wipe any excess off the edges.

 

[Coyote]

They 're supposed to absorb whatever quantity they can in minutes, so you may do it now.
Edit: Talking about CPCs. I don't really know which is the absorption time for Paulsons or China Clays.

 

[TomC727]

They’ve been drying for about an hour now, and surprisingly the only racks that have a little excess are the first couple of racks I completed, the yellow and orange. The purples and down have dried.

 

[BearMetal]

They’ve been drying for about an hour now, and surprisingly the only racks that have a little excess are the first couple of racks I completed, the yellow and orange. The purples and down have dried.

I usually don't see the extra thin line of oil until the next day.

 

[TomC727]

I usually don't see the extra thin line of oil until the next day.

I’m going to let them sit overnight.

 

[TomC727]

Well what I tried to avoid has happened. I wasn’t planning on doing the whole chip, just edges, but I checked a stack and there was too much oil that seeped through

into the faces, so now, the whole set is completely getting oiled.

 

[BGinGA]

Well what I tried to avoid has happened. I wasn’t planning on doing the whole chip, just edges, but I checked a stack and there was too much oil that seeped through View attachment 452289into the faces, so now, the whole set is completely getting oiled.

Hence the 'you used too much oil' comments. Two capfuls of oil is a LOT.

 

[TomC727]

Hence the 'you used too much oil' comments. Two capfuls of oil is a LOT.

Yeah. At the time, the 2 caps didn’t seem like that much. It took a while to do the 1000 chip set but as I have them all laid out drying on my kitchen table and counter, I’m happy they are completely oiled and done.

And like some said, the excess oil on the microfiber was plenty for the faces of the 1000.

 

[Poker Zombie]

I had posted a video earlier in this thread that shows how little oil is actually used. I guess people are just glossing over it and looking forward to a future of oil-stained felts.

 

[BGinGA]

I had posted a video earlier in this thread that shows how little oil is actually used. I guess people are just glossing over it and looking forward to a future of oil-stained felts.

Truth be told, nearly everyone uses too much oil their first time, mostly because nobody believes how little oil is really required.

Much worse to use too much vs too little, however.

 

[Coyote]

It doesn't hurt to repeat it, from time to time.
For (used) Paulsons or brand-new CPCs (as soon as cleaned from factory dust) -don't know about china clays:
Absolute MAX = half a teaspoon of oil on a clean shoe-shine applicator for minimum 5 barrels (one rack). On the assumption that the inevitable excess will be wiped off the egdes soon after, to do the faces.
If not oiling faces, then even smaller quantity.

NO oil for ceramics and plastics.

 

[BearMetal]

Truth be told, nearly everyone uses too much oil their first time

I'm in that club. Stupidly I read "a capful of oil for 1000 chips", so I dumped a capful onto my cloth. This mean that chips #1 - #50 took the full brunt of the oil, while the rest got less and less progressively. With that said, I recently re-opened my racks to see how the first batch did and there was no oil on them. So, my hope is that it just really needed it and absorbed what it could (leaving the rest on the towel)

I guess people are just glossing over it and looking forward to a future of oil-stained

Oily felt ... well, now you've given me nightmares, Zombie . I'm going to need to take out all 3000 chips and lay them out on towels due to my OCD or I won't sleep.

 

[TomC727]

My cash set arrived this week and I cleaned and oiled them on the same day. Went much better. I did a cap full of oil spread over more of the microfiber to do the edges and then did the rest of the chips with another microfiber that had oil still on it from my tournament set oiling.

Worked out much better than the 2 cap fulls I used on the tournament set edges.

 

[warma]

Wow. The maroon and peacock both just pop when oiled. I did a light oil- couple of drops on a rag (will take a photo when I do my next rack), wiped down the sides, quickly wiped around the face to use the small amount of oil that leaked between chips.

 

[chestermordis]

Las fichas se ven nuevas, increíbles.