Year in Review: 2025 – The Year I Got Into Keyboards

One day this year, I woke up and thought, “Zach, you know what you need? Another hobby that is expensive, nerdy, and takes up space in your relatively small Brooklyn apartment.” Ok, that’s not true, but it might as well be because the results are the same. This year, without any premeditated intention to do so, I got into the world of custom mechanical keyboards.

The true origin of this newfound obsession is a happy accident. For a long time, I had been using a very compact and very crappy Logitech for my home setup. One day, it just began to really annoy me. So, I looked into getting something new, and my searching led me to a brand called NuPhy.

Not knowing what I was getting myself into, I picked up the “Air 75 V2” based on many positive reviews. When I got it, I was surprised to find extra keys, a strange tool with bent wires, and a little bag containing what I learned were different types of switches. Before getting to that, though, the feel of the Air 75, a mechanical keyboard with low-profile switches and keys, was the breath of fresh air I didn’t realize I needed. As someone who spends the majority of their waking hours at a computer, I am constantly interacting with a keyboard, and like the crown or clasp of my watch, the better that point of interaction is, the better the overall experience.

the Mode sixtyfive in green with GMK CYL Abstract keycaps

Back to those extras. After discussing it with Blake Malin, co-founder of Worn & Wound and keyboard enthusiast, he mentioned that, because the NuPhy is “hot swap,” I can remove and replace the key caps and switches. That little weird tool is used for just that. And this is where things really start. What other boards are out there? What other key caps and switches? A beam of light had appeared through a crack in the door to a new world of G.A.S., pre-orders, reviews, social media, etc. I had no idea what I was getting myself into.

I won’t go blow by blow, but a second board happened in short order, this time with full-sized keys. That was a game-changer, given that I hadn’t used a large keyboard in well over a decade. It came fully assembled and was very nice, but it was missing something: the experience of building it myself.

the Wind Hola with Domikey Terrazzo Keycaps

Deeper into the hole I went, eventually landing on a brand called Mode Designs. While a lot of custom keyboard gear leans toward gaming and anime (no shade, just not for me), Mode and some others are pure design-focused, making objects that add to your home or desk decor. After too much time spent crawling their website, I picked the board I wanted. One called the SixtyFive, a 65% layout, in dark green with a white base plate and a copper accent. I also went for some of their keycaps in a mix of dark grays.

That was the easy part. Here is where the line between just getting a nice keyboard and getting into this as a hobby was crossed. The other things you need are less obvious, and get into the sound and feel of the board. What plate material did I want? What stabilizers should I get? What type of switches, tactile or linear? What spring weight? Do I need to get lube (the answer was yes)? To keep ordering simple, I went entirely through Mode, assuming it would be a one-and-done experience.

the Hibi June is fully silicone

On a quiet Saturday morning, I cleared some space on my dining room table and began assembling the board, following along with a video. The first step was to test the PCB, which involved attaching the daughter board (new vocab for me), connecting it to my laptop, opening a “test matrix”, and simulating key strokes by touching the leads with a tweezer. I felt like I had gotten in over my head immediately.

But I persisted, eventually getting to the time-consuming and slightly messy task of lubing stabilizers. Slowly, but surely, that first board came together, and the result, with which I am typing this very sentence, was yet another level of satisfaction. The board, made chiefly of milled aluminum, has a notable heft, and the sound it makes, a bright “clack,” is immensely pleasing. If the word “luxury” could be applied to the experience of typing, I was now experiencing it.

the Agar with Yves Klein blue keycaps

And you’d think the story would end there, but no. Like with watches, there’s an itch that formed that pushed me to keep looking at what is out there. I started to wonder about different keyboard layouts, like 60%, which led me to a brand called Hibi that happens to be co-owned by Andrew Green of the OT podcast, or the seemingly very odd 40%, which doesn’t even have a row for numerals. Soon, I learned that Garret Jones, Worn & Wound’s photographer and EDC expert, was very into keyboards as well, and we began sharing links and encouraging each other’s habit.

I ordered more. More boards, more caps, more switches. I even began lubing my switches, a tedious but meditative process of opening them with a little tool, taking them apart, and painting lube on the friction points. To go a step further, I’ve also started swapping springs to my preferred weights.

swapping springs and lubing switches

Ironically, part of what makes this hobby enjoyable is that it gets me away from screens for a few hours at a time. Assembling, maintaining, and customizing is meditative. Maybe this all hints at a need for more crafts in my life. More ways to detach from screens and use my hands. Perhaps, and just thinking out loud here, I should try putting together a watch one of these days.

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