Earlier today I posted some images of our dice collection.

http://www.thechipboard.com/index.cgi/page/1/md/read/id/1307665/sbj/here-and-there-and-everywhere/

In one of the pictures I noticed something that needed further investigation .

Unfortunately, what I saw wasn't an optical illusion...we had a problem.

Years ago, before we had as much stuff, before I had "toys" (desktop, laptop, digital camera, scanner...nothing too technical ), before we had casinos within an hour or two of home....I used to take the time to go through our dice at least once a year, sometimes twice, to check their condition and pull any out that were starting to show signs of damage. It's been awhile since I've done that...and apparently it's past time! I thought I'd do some documentation here, first.

Dice are made up of different kinds of plastic (hopefully someone with more knowledge will post better details). I sort of remember the terms cellulose nitrate and cellulose acetate...I don't remember what is what, but I do remember that one of those is unstable and can cause your dice collection to disintegrate...literally. The late Jeff "the diceman" Laudeman recommended using clear nail polish to coat crystallizing dice, which would sometimes halt further damage and allow very gentle handling. Another chemical compound can cause the "vinegar syndrome"....and there's no way to stop that.

To check your dice you should smell each pair; if there's a vinegar smell you have a problem. You should also feel them; if they are starting to feel "concave" you have a problem. You can run your fingernail across the spots; if they aren't completely flush you have a problem. And, of course, you should look at them; if they are starting to crystallize you have a problem.

As I mentioned, crystallizing dice can be coated with clear nail polish. I normally don't do this if there's just a small bit of crystallizing, because the nail polish can cause a problem, too. Heavily crystallized dice, I will coat with nail polish because I figure they're lost for sure if I don't. To coat them, just coat one side at a time and give it a lot of drying time (from an hour to overnight) before doing another side. On logo sides, dab the nail polish lightly, to try to avoid damaging the logo.

Nail polish won't help dice with the vinegar syndrome, or dice that are imploding (sides are concave instead of flat). When the implosion is advanced, the spots can pop off. These dice should be quarantined, to avoid infecting other dice.

Here's more pictures...even though Jeff said it wouldn't work, I tried coating some of the imploding dice with nail polish. All I got was sticky imploding dice. That was years ago, and the nail polish has finally dried! But the dice are still ugly .

These are imploding...but not coated with nail polish (oops...they're coated with dust ! Oh well... ).