I’ve had an interest in mechanical keyboards for most of the past ten years. I got my first mechanical ‘board in 2017 and I haven’t looked back. I refuse, unless I have no better option, to type on any other kind of keyboard.
My first mechanical keyboard was a VicTsing model from Amazon. It came with knock-off Cherry MX blue switches and was remarkably tactile and loud. It didn’t spoil me on the idea; rather, I loved how loud and tactile it was. When I got a job in a billing office in 2018, my keyboard came with me. My workmates didn’t seem to mind the machine gun-like sound, but I didn’t like the necessity of having to use an external number pad for keying charges from medical invoices into the computer. So, in November 2018, I invested in a Kingston HyperX FPS Pro gaming keyboard. I never had gaming in mind – I wanted the big, grown-up version of the keyboard I had brought to the office with me. The Kingston keyboard was fantastic, though over time its loud keys got on my nerves. Impressively, it took nearly five years to reach that point.
During the Covid-19 lockdown, I got into soldering and electronics, and when I got into that hobby, one of the first things I wanted to do was modify some of my electronics. That obviously included my keyboards. From eBay, I scored a “Royal Kludge” 61-key mini keyboard (small enough to take with my iPad when I go out, and it works fine with the iPad via USB-C – I’m writing this post with that keyboard right now). That keyboard had off-brand brown switches based on the Cherry MX Brown. I found a set of used MX Browns on eBay from a seller who had modded his own keyboard, and for about $30, I took a lot of the bark out of the VicTsing keyboard while also removing none of its trademark bite. The Brown switches have a pleasing linear feedback and a nice tactile feel, but without the trademark click of the Blue. It’s as close as you’re likely to get to the best of both worlds – though I love the click of the Blues when I’m not working in a quiet office.
Immediately before the pandemic, I got a quieter keyboard for working in the part of the billing office where we do insurance collections. My workmates and I, who spent a significant portion of the day on the phone to various payers, appreciated the quieter action of the Logitech G413 I ended up choosing. The G413 has a proprietary switch design not based on any extant design from Cherry or Kailh (or any of the knock-offs from companies like Outemu), though for me the chief drawback is being stuck with the Logitech key caps. The feedback puts me in the mind of my old Apple Extended Keyboard II – neither too stiff nor too soft, and not too loud. I’m not a huge fan of the feel of the keys, but that’s not a huge problem since it’s my backup nowadays.
This year, I ended up going back to the HyperX. I write pretty much all day long in my current job, and I need a keyboard that can keep up – and one that can give off a lot of “don’t fuck with me” energy when I’m deep in the throes of writing an appeal letter. To that end, the MX Blues served their purpose… until they started getting on my nerves. I found some “Silent Gray” key switches on Temu, the ascendant alternative to Wish and AliExpress, and from what little I’ve tried them, they’re going to work great once I fix the keyboard.
You see, while working on the keyboard, I managed to burn off one of the solder points for the Z key’s switch. I’m going to have to try to remedy this by monkeying around with my soldering iron and the circuit board (patching into the circuit board on the trace that leads to the Z key, then soldering the affected leg of the switch to the monkey-patch) – I’d really hate for my $80 keyboard to bite the big one because of my own stupidity, although that would be a très William thing to do.
I’d like to try MX Silent Red switches for office use, and Kailh Box Jade switches for home use – the Jades are supposed to be even louder than MX Blues! The feedback may be a bit too firm for my aging hands – I find that typing on MX Blues can be exhausting if I go for any longer than about an hour at a stretch – and Browns aren’t much better. It’s still tons better than a membrane keyboard – the cheap Logitech K360 I use for my bedroom PC (cheaply imported from Canada and valued because it’s in a Canadian French layout, less for the key legends and more for the presence of the key between Z and Left Shift, which is how you type «» on a Canadian French keyboard) is horrible for long stretches of typing (such as when I work from home).
All in all, mechanical keyboards are an eminently interesting, useful hobby that lets me play with a 400º soldering iron and experience my favorite means of expression (writing) via a high-quality input device (a well-made mechanical keyboard). They’re okay for gaming, though that isn’t my first choice of applications for the mechanical keyboard. I prefer to use them for the original purpose of the keyboard, namely as a high-tech writing implement.