The lovely donor. This is a CIE Terminals keyboard, but I've noticed there have been others simply branded "C.Itoh" and missing the black strip on top. That is also part of a liftable window which provides access to the LEDs... I guess?
The CIE Terminals boards are actually quite elegant (if not huge). It's a shame that they have a weird switch type and probably don't function with anything modern.
I've also noticed a variation in the "Do" key's manner of stabilization. XMIT helped me out with some keys before I purchased these (plan on sculpting mods for these caps to work with ANSI), and his "Do" key had traditional Alps stabilizers, while the ones on this one have wells that ride along stabilizer pegs.
Anyway:
The dyesubbing on these caps are some of the best I've ever seen. Very sharp while not being too thin or too thick. I was impressed. The spherical scooping is not mega deep like on the IBM Multistation, but, in my opinion, just right. It also has deep dish scooping on the homing keys.
I bought two of these from Russia (with love) and they both seem to barely have any shine, which is nice! Most of the others I've seen have been well-used. Even the ABS space bars have no sign of shine!
I had a feeling these would go best on Alps SKCM Brown and Alps SKCM Green, and I think I was right!
The spherical shape and the feeling of PBT really combine to just feel wonderful on these and, well, probably other tactile SKCM switches too.
It's like the spherical tops direct a lot of the feel right onto your fingertips.
In my opinion, tactiles feel best with any kind of PBT caps. Linears and clickies are not so fussy, but this is all subjective (cap thickness is also a factor sometimes). I usually prefer ABS on linears, but PBT doesn't feel bad, and clickies are directly split down the middle and feel great with both.
ABS has this warm, grippy yet airy feel compared to PBT, which has this dry, more direct and dense feel.
Let me stop romanticizing though.
Quite the combination to say the least. I see you got the right mouse too.
), but I'm trying to work with a friend to have these converted and made functional again.
I like that many companies used Tai Hao caps. The Cherry-style is also found on various models too. Like that one trackball board that people paid crazy amounts for on ebay a while back. Not the keycat, I believe.