A Keyboard Love Story III - IBM Model M
Posted: 25 Jun 2012, 19:01
It was early March. Winter in Southern Finland had been rather short and without this streak of -30 °C days like we had in the last couple of winters. Spring was around the corner and it was time for something new.
I’d started to grow great interest towards the Buckling Spring IBM Model M keyboards. I found myself looking at nude pictures and even live-action videos of it. I was listening to its clicking and clacking. Reading retrospective reviews and Wikipedia entries of it in bed. Since many people seemed so determined to Model M being the best keyboard ever, hands down, I just had to give it a go.
A colleague of mine was keying away with his Model M, at the office, in the same open room with his team. I hadn’t heard of any complaints from his teammates but I actually think this guy just outlasted and outplayed all the complaints... He didn’t have any spare ones but he did have one donor keyboard which he said was from some big-ass mainframe, RS/6000 maybe. It had funny keys like “Reset” on it but it wasn’t the 122 key beast... It became clear to me that I couldn’t get this board working in time (which was like NOW) due to the different protocol/pinnings/scan codes/whatever.
Next I started emailing all kinds of IT recycling centers and junk yards. Massive disappointment. They were all forbidden to give away or sell out any kind of electronic equipment. None. Gaah, sometimes this do-it-by-the-books, bureaucratic attitude is so annoying... I went through the nearby flea markets but nothing. If I would've known better 10 years ago... Flea markets were filled with these boards and even complete PS/2 systems!
Then I flipped out the wild card. I joined MuroBBS, which is, I suppose, a sort of Finland’s correspondent to OCN. It didn't took more than a couple of days and I made a deal with this one guy. I drove 50 km there and 50 km back to get my Model M...
The packaging. A Lidl plastic bag. Very convenient to carry but aesthetically not very pleasing.
The appearance of an IBM Model M causes no awe or any other kind of strong feelings for that matter. It just stands there... Dull and gray... Yet reassuring, despite the missing Esc keycap. I’ve never owned a Model M before, but I do remember the unique sound of it when typing away at junior high school or at a friend who had a PS/2 system. I carefully press down a couple of keys...
The sound is pure awesomeness. The sound pronounces everyone that The Man is in the house now and The Man gots some serious business going on. Cherry has absolutely no match for it. Hands down. The click sound is a thick, multi-layered, mid-range clack sound which in many cases ends with a beautiful plate resonance - on the key release phase! It is far from the high pitched, thin tick sound of a Cherry MX blue. Anyone who claims that Cherry MX blues and Buckling Springs have, well anything, in common in terms of sound are just plain wrong. Such person has either never used them both or is just incapable of differentiating them. It’s like claiming that Coke and Pepsi tasted the same.
The feel of the keycaps is superior. It wipes the floor with my Ducky and Filco (when I still had it) which have keycaps made of ABS. I really like the grainy texture of the IBM keycaps made of PBT plastic. They feel smooth while still having something there signaling your fingers that they’ve arrived home. It feels kinda like a sheet of A4 copy paper. In terms of keycap shape, Ducky keycaps are more concave than the Model M.
Typing is considerably heavier than on a Cherry MX brown or blue switches. It is too heavy for me if practicing key-fu for hours but at home, I use it on a regular basis. Despite the heaviness, I think I write at pretty much the same speed as on Cherry MX switches but I think I typo less on Model M. However, there’s one thing regarding the force that makes Buckling Spring so distinguished and unique... When I press down a key, there’s no warning sign before the actuation. It just happens and I hear the sound and I feel the very nice snappy feedback on my fingertips - all simultaneously. Because when comparing to the Cherry MX browns and blues, they suddenly give me a bit of a warning sign; they push back just a tiny bit and after crossing that border line, the actuation happens plus the click on blues. So they are quite different in nature. I like both but I must say that Buckling Springs do deliver more pleasing sensation.
Feature wise, it’s no match for the modern ones. It’s just a keyboard. It’s very much a keyboard. Personally, I miss the Win-key on the bottom left, but I manage. The very long PS/2 cord is excellent! Wikipedia claims that this particular model (1391411) doesn’t have drainage channels but then what are those holes underneath the board’s nose?
Oh, regarding the construction of the board, let me just say that IBM Model M makes an excellent close combat weapon.
As you probably noticed, it was around this time, that I started to grow interest towards the keycaps and plastics... It was the IBM Model M that got me thinking, what if it wasn’t the Cherry MX brown switches that made me prefer Filco over Ducky? What if it had something to do with the keycaps as well! Or some spiritual imbalance within the Ducky? I needed to get another Cherry MX blue board with different caps for further comparison... But that’s another story, folks!
I’d started to grow great interest towards the Buckling Spring IBM Model M keyboards. I found myself looking at nude pictures and even live-action videos of it. I was listening to its clicking and clacking. Reading retrospective reviews and Wikipedia entries of it in bed. Since many people seemed so determined to Model M being the best keyboard ever, hands down, I just had to give it a go.
A colleague of mine was keying away with his Model M, at the office, in the same open room with his team. I hadn’t heard of any complaints from his teammates but I actually think this guy just outlasted and outplayed all the complaints... He didn’t have any spare ones but he did have one donor keyboard which he said was from some big-ass mainframe, RS/6000 maybe. It had funny keys like “Reset” on it but it wasn’t the 122 key beast... It became clear to me that I couldn’t get this board working in time (which was like NOW) due to the different protocol/pinnings/scan codes/whatever.
Next I started emailing all kinds of IT recycling centers and junk yards. Massive disappointment. They were all forbidden to give away or sell out any kind of electronic equipment. None. Gaah, sometimes this do-it-by-the-books, bureaucratic attitude is so annoying... I went through the nearby flea markets but nothing. If I would've known better 10 years ago... Flea markets were filled with these boards and even complete PS/2 systems!
Then I flipped out the wild card. I joined MuroBBS, which is, I suppose, a sort of Finland’s correspondent to OCN. It didn't took more than a couple of days and I made a deal with this one guy. I drove 50 km there and 50 km back to get my Model M...
The packaging. A Lidl plastic bag. Very convenient to carry but aesthetically not very pleasing.
The appearance of an IBM Model M causes no awe or any other kind of strong feelings for that matter. It just stands there... Dull and gray... Yet reassuring, despite the missing Esc keycap. I’ve never owned a Model M before, but I do remember the unique sound of it when typing away at junior high school or at a friend who had a PS/2 system. I carefully press down a couple of keys...
The sound is pure awesomeness. The sound pronounces everyone that The Man is in the house now and The Man gots some serious business going on. Cherry has absolutely no match for it. Hands down. The click sound is a thick, multi-layered, mid-range clack sound which in many cases ends with a beautiful plate resonance - on the key release phase! It is far from the high pitched, thin tick sound of a Cherry MX blue. Anyone who claims that Cherry MX blues and Buckling Springs have, well anything, in common in terms of sound are just plain wrong. Such person has either never used them both or is just incapable of differentiating them. It’s like claiming that Coke and Pepsi tasted the same.
The feel of the keycaps is superior. It wipes the floor with my Ducky and Filco (when I still had it) which have keycaps made of ABS. I really like the grainy texture of the IBM keycaps made of PBT plastic. They feel smooth while still having something there signaling your fingers that they’ve arrived home. It feels kinda like a sheet of A4 copy paper. In terms of keycap shape, Ducky keycaps are more concave than the Model M.
Typing is considerably heavier than on a Cherry MX brown or blue switches. It is too heavy for me if practicing key-fu for hours but at home, I use it on a regular basis. Despite the heaviness, I think I write at pretty much the same speed as on Cherry MX switches but I think I typo less on Model M. However, there’s one thing regarding the force that makes Buckling Spring so distinguished and unique... When I press down a key, there’s no warning sign before the actuation. It just happens and I hear the sound and I feel the very nice snappy feedback on my fingertips - all simultaneously. Because when comparing to the Cherry MX browns and blues, they suddenly give me a bit of a warning sign; they push back just a tiny bit and after crossing that border line, the actuation happens plus the click on blues. So they are quite different in nature. I like both but I must say that Buckling Springs do deliver more pleasing sensation.
Feature wise, it’s no match for the modern ones. It’s just a keyboard. It’s very much a keyboard. Personally, I miss the Win-key on the bottom left, but I manage. The very long PS/2 cord is excellent! Wikipedia claims that this particular model (1391411) doesn’t have drainage channels but then what are those holes underneath the board’s nose?
Oh, regarding the construction of the board, let me just say that IBM Model M makes an excellent close combat weapon.
As you probably noticed, it was around this time, that I started to grow interest towards the keycaps and plastics... It was the IBM Model M that got me thinking, what if it wasn’t the Cherry MX brown switches that made me prefer Filco over Ducky? What if it had something to do with the keycaps as well! Or some spiritual imbalance within the Ducky? I needed to get another Cherry MX blue board with different caps for further comparison... But that’s another story, folks!
.
