Mission: Keyboard

I’ve been looking at mechanical keyboards for about 1-2 years now. Initially when I heard about a friend who had built one a few years back, my thoughts were like “Wow, it’s not worth spending that much money on a keyboard” and “Why do you want a loud keyboard? Noise is like the worst thing about them”. Around the same time I had just gotten my first Thinkpad, a T440, and over time I slowly realized the joy of typing on a nice keyboard.

Since then I started thinking more about ergonomics and my home office setup and have slowly done each component:

• Got an adjustable desk
• Got a 27” 4K IPS panel on an hydraulic VESA arm
• Replaced my mouse with a Logitech MX Master 2
• Got a 60x80 cm^2 cutting mat as a desk mat (maybe not important for ergonomics but it’s sooo nice with a giant desk mat and no mouse pad)

The thing I have not been able to figure it was the keyboard. I mostly love the T440 keyboard, especially after having some work laptops from HP and Dell, and thought “Hey, if Lenovo can make nice laptop keyboards they should also have some nice stand-alone keyboards?”. Boy was I wrong. I picked up the (Lenovo Professional Wireless Keyboard and Mouse)[https://www.lenovo.com/us/en/accessories-and-monitors/keyboards-and-mice/keyboard-and-mouse-combos/KB-MICE-BO-Mouse-and-KBD-Combo-USE/p/4X30H56796] and not only did it lack the feel of the Thinkpad keyboard, keycaps got stuck and wobbly and the feel just worse, whereas the Thinkpad keyboard almost gets better with age.

I have since then learned there is (another Lenovo keyboard)[https://www.lenovo.com/us/en/accessories-and-monitors/keyboards-and-mice/keyboards/KEYBOARD-US-English/p/0B47190] with a closer feel to the Thinkpad but a lot of reviews still say it’s not good enough. But before trying another Lenovo membrane board I had already started looking into the world of mechanical keyboards and the idea of building something with feel and look personalized to my taste had been planted.