The care guide
Caring for your dice
CritStones are the dice of GlassStaff, designed in house in Boskoop, NL and backed by a lifetime guarantee. Good dice outlive campaigns, and most "dice care" advice online is written to scare you into a tray. Here is what actually damages dice, what does not, and how to clean and store every material in the CritStones range. Where folklore and materials science disagree, we side with the science.
Cleaning
How to clean and store your dice
One ladder covers almost every material. Start at step one and stop as soon as the die is clean.
Dry microfiber
A quick wipe after a session removes the hand oils that dull a finish over time. For most dice, this is all care ever needs.
Mild soap, lukewarm water
For real grime: a drop of mild dish soap on a damp cloth. Wipe, do not soak; water that gets inside hollow metal or past a worn finish causes more trouble than the dirt did.
Soft toothbrush for the grooves
Number grooves collect gunk. A soft-bristle toothbrush with the same soapy water clears them without touching the paint.
Dry completely
Straight away, with a dry cloth. Leftover moisture is what tarnishes metal and creeps into seams. Then back into storage, not onto the windowsill.
Never, on any material
Alcohol, acetone or household solvents (they haze resin and lift number paint), magic erasers (micro-abrasive foam that mattes gloss finishes), ultrasonic cleaners, long soaks, and metal polish on painted numbers. If a cleaner sounds industrial, it is stronger than your dice.
The physics
What actually damages dice (and what does not)
One concept explains every real rule: hardness is not toughness. Hardness decides what can scratch a surface; toughness decides what survives an impact. A polished stone die is far harder than your wooden table, so the table physically cannot scratch it. But that same stone is brittle, so a sharp knock can chip it. Once you know the direction of damage, the rules write themselves.
Dice damage each other
The number one real cause of chips and micro-scratches: dice-on-dice contact. Stone and glass dice in one shared bag chip each other; metal dice chew everything softer. Roll hard materials one at a time, store them in separate slots, and most "mystery chips" never happen.
Metal dice damage tables
Here the tray protects the furniture, not the die. Heavy, sharp-cornered metal shrugs off your table and leaves a dent as a signature. Roll metal onto something that can take the impact: a tray, a mat, a thick notebook.
Hard floors damage brittle dice
The drops that actually chip stone, glass and sharp-edge resin are onto tile, stone and glass surfaces, plus trips through dice towers and cups, and banking off hard tray walls. A normal roll on a wooden table is fine for stone dice; wood is much softer than the die.
Per material
What each material wants
The full differences between materials live in Dice materials, explained. Here is just the care side, ranked roughly from easiest keeper to most demanding:
Sharp-edge resin
The crisp corners are the beauty and the vulnerable spot: they concentrate impact, so drops onto tile or stone can chip them where a rounded die would bounce. Roll on a mat or tray, store with the points protected, and keep them out of long direct sun; UV genuinely yellows resin over the years, worst on transparent and light sets.
Clean: the ladder above, nothing stronger.
Liquid core
Same body as sharp-edge resin, one extra rule that actually matters: temperature. A hot car can expand the sealed liquid enough to stress or cloud the shell, and a freezing garage can crack it. Room temperature and shade keep the swirl swirling for decades. Glitter settling between rolls is normal, not a fault.
Clean: dry or barely damp cloth; solvents haze the window the whole effect lives behind.
Metal
Nearly indestructible itself, hard on everything else. Tray up, for the table's sake. The real enemies are moisture (dry thoroughly after washing; skip humid rooms), solvent cleaners and metal polish (both strip plating and number paint), and loose storage where metal dice scuff each other. Raw brass and antiqued finishes darken with handling; that is patina, not damage, and polishing it off can ruin the look.
Clean: the ladder, then dry like you mean it.
Hollow metal
Lighter, so kinder to furniture, but the thin walls and seams are the weak points: a crush or a hard point-impact can dent a face that solid metal would ignore. Never soak; water trapped inside corrodes from within. Blower or dry swabs for the openwork, foam slots for storage.
Clean: dry methods first; damp cloth outside only.
Glass
The strictest tier, and it earns it: glass is both softer than quartz gemstones and brittle, so grit, stone dice and metal dice can all scratch it, and hard impacts chip it. Blow or brush grit off before wiping (grit dragged under a cloth is what scratches), roll one at a time in a lined tray, store in its own compartment, and avoid thermal shock.
Clean: blower first, then barely damp microfiber.
Gemstone
Depends on the stone, and we will tell you which. Quartz-family stones (amethyst, agate, jasper, aventurine) are tougher than the internet's warnings; fluorite, obsidian, opalite and malachite are genuinely delicate and deserve the strict treatment. For all of them: never roll or store stone dice together (equal hardness means they chip each other), keep drops onto tile and stone short, and clean nearly dry; some stones dislike water, and amethyst and fluorite can fade in long direct sun.
Clean: brush off grit, barely damp cloth, dry at once.
The small stuff
Sticky dice, faded numbers and glowing ones
Sticky out of the box?
That is not dirt, it is undercured resin, a manufacturing flaw that washing will not fix. If a CritStones die arrives sticky, skip the sink and file a guarantee claim; we replace it.
Faded or worn numbers
Re-inking is normal maintenance, not vandalism: work a little acrylic paint into the grooves, then wipe the flat face clean with a barely damp cloth before it cures. Slow, oddly satisfying, and the die comes back sharper than ever.
Glow numbers gone dim?
Glow pigment needs charging, not replacing: a few minutes under bright light (a UV torch works fastest) and it is back. Charging does not wear it out; the pigment survives thousands of cycles.
Dice jail, salt baths and moonlight
Beloved table rituals, zero material effect. The saltwater "float test" only ever worked as a crude balance check for cheap floating plastic, and does nothing for resin, stone, glass or metal. Sentence your d20 to jail if it deserves it; just know the die is unbothered.
Already broken?
Care prevents. The CritStones Promise cures.
If a die chips, cracks or gives up anyway, care instructions stop mattering and our lifetime guarantee takes over: one free replacement per player, postage on us, whether you bought direct or from a stockist, no matter how old the die is.
Questions
Dice care FAQ
How do I clean sticky or grimy dice?
Dry microfiber first; for real grime, a drop of mild dish soap on a damp lukewarm cloth, a soft toothbrush for the number grooves, and dry completely. Skip alcohol, acetone, magic erasers and ultrasonic cleaners; they dull finishes and lift number paint. A die that is sticky brand-new is a resin defect, not dirt, and that is a guarantee claim.
Can I roll gemstone dice on a wooden table?
Yes. Wood is far softer than polished stone, so a normal roll on a wooden table cannot scratch a quartz-family gemstone die. What actually chips stone dice: rolling or storing several together, dice towers and cups, and drops onto tile, stone or glass. The delicate stones (fluorite, obsidian, opalite) and glass dice are the ones that earn the tray-only rule.
Do metal dice need a dice tray?
The tray is for your table, not the dice. Heavy metal dice dent and scratch wooden furniture; the dice themselves are nearly indestructible. Roll them onto anything that can take the impact: a tray, a mat, a thick notebook.
Can I keep all my dice in one bag?
Standard resin sets, yes. Stone, glass, sharp-edge and metal dice, no: dice-on-dice contact is the number one cause of chips and scratches, and metal chews everything softer. Hard and precious materials get their own slots or pouches.
Do liquid-core dice need special care?
One rule: temperature. No hot cars, no freezing garages; the sealed liquid expands and contracts more than the shell likes. Otherwise treat them like resin dice, and know that glitter settling between rolls is normal. Balance is a separate question, and we put it to the 10,000-roll balance test.
Will sunlight fade my dice?
Over years, yes, for resin (worst on transparent and light colors) and for some stones like amethyst and fluorite. Metal does not care. The fix is free: store and display them out of long direct sun; windowsills and car dashboards are the actual culprits.
A die broke even though I cared for it. Now what?
Then it is not a care problem, it is ours. Every CritStones die is backed for life: read the promise or file a guarantee claim, and a replacement heads your way.
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