A Small Plea Against "Switch Harvesting"
First and foremost, I think that it should be said right out of the gate that you are entitled to do whatever you want to do on your own behalf and this article is not a provocation to fight with you about your decisions. However, in my pursuit of wanting to cover as many topics about switches as I possibly can, I realize I have not yet covered ‘switch harvesting’, one of the practices that I’m becoming less favorable towards as the years go on. Rather than trying to cover the history of this in a not so unbiased fashion, I figure I might as well try and convince you all as to why I feel this way about this process. After all, you’ve read my opinions more than once before on this website… In the earliest days of the custom mechanical keyboard hobby, years which start around 2008 and span to 2012, the vast majority of custom keyboards were built using switches had already had previous lives in other keyboards. Given that there were few if any switch manufacturers selling switches...
Mar 26, 2025
This is a much easier option for not that much more money.
Is getting a pre-built board easier than sourcing two different things and then putting it together? Yes, of course. But I'm not sure I see the amount of effort required is worth the additional cost. At the $500 MSRP, heck even at the $350 lowest price, you are in the range of a 100% custom build, which, while this is nice, is not a custom build.
As for the painting...well, yeah, that is personal preference.
At the end of the day if someone likes this and they have the $$ they certainly go for it! But for me it is not worth it. The day I spend this much on a keyboard it will be because it is fully customized and programmable, also it will be a 60%.