At the heart of the Best Keyboard Ever, is IBM's venerated buckling spring switch technology. This switch technology was developed in the 1970's and is at the core of the IBM Model F. This keyboard switch has a delicate yet incredibly tactile response that makes typing a pure pleasure. If you are new to mechanical keyboards, the buckling spring switch is what other mechanical switches are modeled
after and compared against (especially those blue and green switches!). Many consider the buckling spring the best switch for typing, with anecdotal claims that using a buckling spring keyboard reduced fatigue and improved accuracy. This is one reason mechanical keyboards are gaining in popularity, but unfortunately, availability has been a real problem for new buckling spring keyboards. Keyboards with those other switches are often your only choice if you are looking for a 60% compact or tenkeyless board, since there those form factors with buckling spring switches either don't exist or are rare and can only be acquired second-hand. The IBM Model F keyboards not only used the best switches, the materials used in their production (well over 5lbs of steel and other metals) means they will be working as good as new when it's time to pass it on to your grandchildren. The problem... they just aren't made that way any more. The IBM Model F was discontinued in the 1980's. If you do find a Model F, it will be some combination of dirty, broken and/or expensive, requiring hours of work to get it working again! While the Model F was replaced with the cheaper and now easier to obtain Model M, the Model M made some sacrifices on build quality and tactile response, replacing almost all metal with plastic. Out was the incredibly sharp and firm click of the Model F's flippers making direct contact with its large printed circuit board. In was the Model M's tiny pivot plates hitting a rubber mat and underlying plastic membrane sheets with a relatively dull thud. And again, if you want a vintage Model M that is considered to be of higher quality than today's keyboards, then you are stuck in the second-hand market dealing with dirty, more likely broken and often expensive options. But through the tireless effort, expertise, and support from countless Deskthority, Geekhack, and reddit community members, the IBM Model F design is being resurrected for the first time in three decades. This effort will culminate in the release of reproductions of the IBM Model F keyboards. Originally, these keyboards were part of a family of industrial strength keyboards designed for use in the banking and other commercial applications - so well made and reliable that some systems and their keyboards are still in use today. The F62's layout is a 30 year old design that the layout of nearly all current-generation compact 60% keyboards match. The F77 most closely matches modern tenkeyless designs with 15 additional keys to the right side of the layout that can be used as either navigation or numeric keys. Finally, a keyboard made in this century with more metal than plastic - a sturdy, heavy keyboard with buckling springs, which were later used in the legendary Model M keyboard that set the standard layout for every keyboard from that era to today. Re-introducing the metal case F62 Kishsaver and F77 Model F buckling spring keyboards
One of the goals of this project has been to get the base price of the keyboard (with no keys) down to $325 USD, even though this project is incredibly expensive to put in motion. Each keyboard will be made to order at the factory from dozens of possible combinations of options. In order to achieve that, I will be doing just one production run, plus one early-bird round. This saves on tooling and other costs that make continuous production infeasible at this time, but it requires orders to be accepted only in a limited window of time. When the window closes, that's it! I will order exact quantities needed with no spare inventory available to order after then. So if you want one of these, please order one soon! I will also be hand inspecting each keyboard myself to make sure each one is up to my quality standards before they ship to you.
