part · switch

Gateron Oil King

Spec sheet

Type: linear
Top housing: pc
Bottom housing: nylon
Stem: pom
Spring: 55g actuation · 65g bottom-out
Travel: 4 mm
Factory lubed: yes
Released: Aug 1, 2022

Mid-weight linear with a heavily lubed POM stem in a polycarbonate over nylon housing. Voiced as deep and creamy out of the box; popular with builders looking for a low-effort thock without modding.

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Mentioned in 20 articles

Switch cross-section diagram of the Gateron Lanes tactile mechanism — exploded side view showing the stepped tactile legs on the stem, the leaf-spring contact, and the housing halves rendered in warm-grey stroke with a coral splash at the stem shoulder

Deep Dives

Gateron Lanes: The Alps-Inspired Tactile Taking Over the Mid-Range

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A switch housing split open in cross-section, with coral accent lines marking the four application points where lube changes a switch's character.

Ideas

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thockJun 5, 202610 min read

Cross-section line drawing of a mechanical keyboard stack — keycaps, switches, plate, PCB, gasket socks, case, and desk surface — each layer labeled with its acoustic role and drawn in a single warm-grey stroke with an ochre splash highlighting the plate and a brass-bronze theme dot at the upper right.

Deep Dives

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Guides

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Side-view cross-section of a tactile switch — top housing, rounded-bump stem, spring, and bottom housing rendered in a single warm-grey stroke with a muted terracotta splash across the bump shoulder and a faint panda-style top/bottom contrast banding the housings.

Deep Dives

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Cherry MX2A switch cross-section, side view — top housing with stem hole, cruciform-mount POM stem column drawn in cherry-red splash, 5-coil spring, bent-leaf contact, and bottom housing with pin contacts; a thin dashed callout traces from the stem-housing interface to a magnified circular inset showing the new factory grease ring with scattered lube dots.

Deep Dives

What Cherry's MX2A revision actually changed

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Exploded-axonometric silhouette of a mechanical keyboard switch on a dark background — top housing, stem, spring, and lower housing separated by thin gap lines, with a single pale-cyan accent dot anchoring the stem.

Deep Dives

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Side-view of five stacked keyboard-plate cross-sections — brass, aluminium, FR4, POM, polycarbonate — drawn as parallel horizontal layers in muted tones with a single warm-terracotta splash on the FR4 band at the centre of the stack.

Deep Dives

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Trends

Reading the Trends Tracker

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Ideas

Pairing Oil Kings with the Mode Sonnet

This pairing has been on the bench for months, and a free Sunday finally made it happen. The Sonnet is a soft 65 with a top-mount-leaf gasket, and Oil Kings are a heavy factory-lubed linear — together they hit a register worth coming back to.

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Near-monochrome top-down line silhouette of a 65% keyboard case with a single warm-bronze accent dot at the bottom right standing in for the new R2 accent-weight finish.

News

Mode Sonnet R2 opens at CannonKeys

Mode's second round of its 65% Sonnet board is now open at CannonKeys, running from 2026-06-01 through 2026-07-15 after a vendor-side timeline shift. See the in-article update for the dates and accent-weight color options.

thockMay 6, 20265 min read

Top-down line silhouette of an Alice-layout keyboard, drawn in a single warm-grey stroke with a dusty-rose splash washing one cluster and a single brass-accent keycap on the right home row.

Trends

The slow fade of Alice layouts

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Detailed vertical exploded-stack of a mechanical switch with stem skirt rails, an LED notch, an 11-coil spring on a dashed center axis, and pin contacts on the bottom housing — drawn in a single warm-grey stroke with a coral splash and a brass LED-notch hit.

Deep Dives

Why the Gateron Oil King sounds the way it does

Few stock linears earn the word 'creamy' on first press. The Oil King does, and the reason is not a secret stem material or a proprietary lube — it is a careful pairing of housing resins and a factory tune that other linears under thirty cents tend to skip.

thockMay 4, 20266 min read

Guides

Lubing 101: what matters, what doesn't, and where to stop

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Vertical exploded-stack diagram of a mechanical switch, drawn in a single warm-grey stroke with horizontal dashed explode-lines and an ochre splash highlighting the cruciform stem top.

Guides

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Trends

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thockApr 26, 20268 min read

Side-view cross-section silhouette of a Hall-effect switch in 2px warm-grey stroke on a transparent canvas — top housing, stem, and lower housing with the sensor seat — overlaid by vivid coral magnetic field lines arcing outward from the stem magnet, with warm-bronze accent hits along the housing edges.

Trends

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thockApr 22, 20268 min read

Guides

Switch housings, compared: nylon, polycarbonate, POM, and the rest

The housing line on a switch spec sheet is the second-most-important thing about a switch, after the type, and most buyers skim past it. Material decides how the switch rings, how the stem rails feel under a finger, and how much grace it gives a bad lube job. A 'PC top, nylon bottom' tag is doing more work than its three words suggest.

thockApr 21, 202610 min read

Cross-section silhouette of a keyboard showing a floating plate held by four gasket pads, with a fine amber accent line tracing the separation between plate and case top.

Ideas

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The label appears on keyboards at every price point, from $90 prebuilts to $400 group-buy customs, but two boards with identical spec-sheet language can sound nothing alike. Here is what the term actually tells you, and what it doesn't.

thockApr 19, 20269 min read

Cross-section diagram of a switch housing showing where a film sits between top and bottom housing

Ideas

Switch films: do they actually do anything?

Thin POM shims between your switch housings cost five dollars and promise a tighter, better-sounding switch. The mechanism is real. Whether it matters on your specific switches is a separate question.

thockApr 13, 20268 min read

Gateron Oil King appears in editor-curated build sheets.

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