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 8 articles

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

How HMX took over the mid-tier linear slot

Two years ago HMX was a name on a vendor page nobody pronounced confidently. Today the Cloud sits second on our W19 tracker and lands in half the $120 prebuilts the scene argues about. The rise wasn't an accident.

thockMay 10, 202612 min read

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.

thockMay 7, 20265 min read

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, 20265 min read

Guides

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

Lube moves the sound and feel of a switch in ways nothing else in the build can. It also chews up a Saturday and ruins switches when applied with the enthusiasm the rabbit-hole crowd recommends. Here is the version that earns its keep.

thockApr 30, 20267 min read

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

A beginner's guide to picking your first switch

Switches are the single biggest factor in how a keyboard feels and sounds, and the catalog has grown overwhelming. This guide narrows the entire market into three families, explains who each one is for, and gives a three-step path from curiosity to a confident first purchase. By the end, the reader can pick a category without second-guessing.

thockApr 30, 20266 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, 20269 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

What gasket mount actually delivers (and what it doesn't)

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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