Don’t get me started on mechanical keyboards. I’ll talk your ear off about them. A writer has a few tools. Whereas the photographer, videographer, musician, and audio technician are weighed down by gear like human Christmas trees, the writer has always required little.
Clay tablet and stylus, then quill, ink, and paper. Then it was a typewriter and paper. Now it’s just a computer, and not even the paper. Ah, but the mechanical keyboard. It affords a bit—just a bit, but enough—of an analog connection to the writing machine.
IBM started making the Model M keyboard in 1985. While it’s not incredibly tough to find old, refurbished models, you can buy newly manufactured ones from Unicomp, made right in Lexington, Kentucky.
older than old-school
Mechanical keyboards are an enthusiast item that have seen a steady resurgence in the West since the 2000s, with their visibility and popularity increasing markedly since the late 2010s.
There are new keyboards, new designs of mechanical keys, and relatively new companies getting into the mechanical keyboard market for the first time, but mechanical keyboards still have a touch of nostalgia and old-fashioned charm, no matter how many RGB lights they pack into them.
The Unicomp Classic 104 is a fairly close reproduction of the IBM Model M, right down to the stiff buckling spring mechanical keys. Even compared to the Cherry MX keys (and clones) that underpin most mechanical keyboards these days, buckling springs are particularly snappy and a bit harder to push down. Some people relish such typing feedback.
“Take a look at the New Model M. It’s a better product than the Classic,” reads Unicomp’s own product page. I’ve got to hand it to them for honesty. Unicomp will keep making the classic model, but they’ve also made their own improvements in the newer model.
“The New Model M buckling spring keyboard has the same mechanism, feel, and layout as the original IBM Model M keyboard, but with a slightly smaller footprint.”
It’s also $39 more than the classic reproduction. Either one is a gem of a keyboard, and you don’t even have to chance eBay for one that may have 40-year-old Coke residue between the keys.