Nah I’m not thinking about buying it, I’m just wondering 
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They’re pretty smooth switches, but not unsurpassed by any means. Gateron themselves have many switches around the same smoothness & personally I think most HMX switches are smoother.
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Oil Kings are genuinely good but overhyped IMO. I was more impressed with Smoothies as far as stock switches go.
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I feel like Smoothies have set a higher bar for me when it comes to pre-lubed switches that I like out of the box…probably why I have them living in my Neo Ergo with no intention of swapping them out.
As for Oil Kings…they are fine. You can do better, and you can do much, much worse when it comes to stock switches. I don’t think I’ve thrown mine into a board since I recorded a sound test with them awhile back.
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Even though Gateron was like a “small, good quality, and more local brand” I feel like they have evolved into more like your average big business tech company if you know what I mean 
But don’t misunderstand me, I don’t mean that all of them switches are bad
They’re smooth and fine. A bit on the higher pitch of things. But you also test your luck with the lube consistency. I had 3 batches of perfectly fine switches, then my last batch was horribly lubed with more than 1/3 having lube inside the stem hole and literally each switch sounding different. I still need to clean them out with my mini ultrasonic along with my London Fogs. I swear I’ll get around to it one day…
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If you’re asking whether Oil King is smooth because it’s full of oil or because it needs a lot of oil to feel smooth, the answer is yes.
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Any particular recommendations of HMX switches?
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Oil King was really good. When re-lubed and filmed it is still an excellent switch. But not the best anymore out of the box, and you cannot fix the wobble even by filming, it’s been surpassed by HMX indeed.
The latest batches and V2 of their previous entries for example are really good. I like the Purple Dawn as a deeper, closer to Oil King entry. The EVA switch and FJ400 are good to me too, as I like heavier springs.
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Maybe the first batch of oil kings that I have are different than the ones out now, but I found them to be only lightly lubed. I wouldn’t consider them to be a good “no mod” switch, but more akin to a newer Gat Ink that when given the film and lube treatment, are a great sounding and smooth switch (the spring weight is also spot on to my preferences). They are utterly destroyed as a value proposition when compared to HMX, and certainly don’t perform as well stock. I would still picked them (fully modded) over the couple of HMX switches that I have on hand.
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I’d checkout KeebTaro’s youtube videos–he’s done at least a couple videos comparing a bunch of HMX switches. Unikeys also does a pretty good job of describing each switch. Honestly HMX switches are super similar, with the main difference being spring weight, travel distance, and bottom out pitch.
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Sorry for the late reply. I’ve really been liking the EVAs, Canglan v2s, & Macchiatos myself. The Clouds are very nice too, but definitely on higher pitched clackier side compared to the other 3. Really with how many HMX switches they’ve released with so many different materials, travel distances, & spring weight the best advice I can give is to just take a look at what materials the switch parts are made from & the travel of the switch. Then pic what you think you’ll like best out them. HMX springs have seemed really nice IME so far. So keeping the stock ones is valid with them, but you can always swap the springs as desired too is why I say use the materials & travel distance to choose. Unikeys has really good in depth info on almost all the HMX switches so I’d say start there even if you plan on buying elsewhere.
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Yeah I completely agree with both of you, the Smoothies set a crazy high bar with their price to performance. That’s why I was raving about them after I got my first batch! However I have heard of some people getting batches that had iffy factory lube. Still great value even if you have to manually lube them, but them being perfectly fine out of the box really does give them a big boost IMO.
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Echoing what you said out of the gate - the oil kings were probably a lot closer towards the top of the pack in terms of smoothness when they first came out, but they’re just “fine” in today’s switch market, being surpassed by other cheaper switches. My batch of oil kings is pretty consistent in terms of lube, but my HMX Xinhais are just as consistent and just as (if not more) smooth for less than half the cost per switch.
I gripped a single 18-pack of Smoothies from DK a while back to see what the hype was about. Definitely got unlucky with the lube consistency on them - most are fine (with maybe a few underlubed), but there are definitely a few that are audibly overlubed.
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