This is a warning to newcomers or reminder to the rest of us that not all switches need to be lubed and/or filmed to get the best performance out of them. I waited until my third batch of gateron silent inks to confirm this before posting, so I'm sure this isn't a fluke batch.
TL;DR: gat silent inks do not take well to lube or films. I find they are smoother with only the spring lubed, and unfilmed.
disclaimer: they are "fine" lubed. I am being very nitpicky here. The key is to type on them stock for a few days first. If you type on them for a few minutes brand new and then lube them sparingly, they feel much better at first. But after a few days of typing, stock/dry ones settle in and outstrip any lube job I have tried. I encourage you to try it for yourself if you decide to get a batch and have a hotswap board you can test this with.
Now, since any logical person would wonder if my lubing technique is the problem, or if there are better films out there than the ones I used, I can offer this: I've lubed non-silent gat black inks, tangies, silent alpacas, and cherry silent reds, all with both 205g0 and 3204. I have added Jinra THICC films, both the regular thickness and resized (thinner) versions, as well as tried lubing all those switches in different places (stems only, housing only, both, legs, no legs, springs, etc.)...I like experimenting with switches. I have gotten very familiar with tinkering with switches, and I know the difference between lube jobs I like and ones I don't like. This case with the gateron silent inks is definitely an outlier. All of those other switches have taken well to both lube and films. Some were not improved much by films, some were a lot. Different lubing amounts have yielded different levels of "buttery" vs. "fast glide", but all were improvements over stock, in my opinion.
The lube problem: When I lubed gateron silent inks, they felt great for a few hours, then became slightly worse. They started having more friction--a very slight resistance that wasn't consistent, and a stuttering/skipping feeling during the stroke. I figured I must have done a bad job lubing, so I got another batch of them (months later, after lubing other switches and getting familiar with it). After trying different combinations, I found using the smallest amount of lube I could, and only lubing the stem rails and springs with 3204 felt very good, so I proceeded to lube the rest of my batch like that and start using them. I loved them for a couple of days, but then the same thing happened and they became noticeably worse. This was not a big difference, mind--I am really nitpicky, having worked on various musical instruments over the years and being keyed in on the smoothness of things like switches and valves--I'll bet a lot of people who lubed their gat silent inks still like them just fine. But I bought a third batch of them just to verify what I felt, and sure enough, the new stock batch, after typing on them for a day or two and letting them settle in, are definitely smoother than any I have lubed. I lubed the springs to get rid of ping/crunch, and left them otherwise dry, and they are clearly the best ones I have.
I have not had this problem with other silent switches. There is something particular about the gat silent ink rails/dampening pads/housing that makes it so that any lube on the rails or rail housing eventually settles in a way that worsens their smoothness.
The filming problem: while trying to figure out the lubing issue, I also noticed that a lot of the filmed silent inks have another problem: if you press the switch down all the way with any sideways pressure, you can feel the edge of the stem slip underneath something and catch on the way up. when typing fast I notice it on switches I press with my ring and pinky fingers most often. I have tried examining the inside of the switch to see what parts are slipping where, but I have not been able to figure that out. If anyone knows or can find out, it may be an important finding. All I know is that in repeated tests, I have found this:
- when I have no films in the switch, i can press the stem all the way down and wiggle it around without it slipping into any gaps or catching on anything,
- when I have a thin film in the switch, at the bottom of the press when wiggling sideways there is some part of the stem that slips under the edge of something else and has to "slip back out" before coming up,
- and the problem is magnified with thicker films, which is evidence that films create a small gap somewhere in the switch housing, or lift the top of the housing enough relative to the stem at the bottom of its stroke, that the stem has some space available to slip into that it shouldn't.
At the end of the day, it's just a sobering reminder of something that makes a lot of sense when you take a step back: it is easy to get so into the idea of filming and lubing switches to make them better that we assume (incorrectly) that all switches will benefit from this. Switches are, however, designed to work without modification. Even though most switches are improved by fixing imperfect fitment tolerances or by adding expensive lube that manufacturers wouldn't add themselves due to cost or manufacturing/supply limitations, modding switches can have unintended negative consequences because the switch designers did not test for performance defects with those upgrades in mind. We are experimenting when we mod switches, and the fact that these two common mods (filming and lubing) tend to improve the vast majority of switches is convenient, but not a guarantee. Gateron silent inks are amazing switches right out of the box, and lubing the springs makes them as perfect as they can get. They need to not have their top housing lifted to prevent parts from slipping around, and that's about it. If you've made it this far, thank you for reading, and I'd love to hear what you have to say about this.
