Artisans on Esc?

[g_hack_it]

I'm torn. I have this awesome artisan from Keyluminati (my first). I will [eventually] have a perfect keycap set to pair it (KAT cyberspace) with and a great starter board that I know they will both look gorgeous on (kdb67 lite). My plan was to put the artisan on the esc key, which I think will look great with an accented Enter key and space bar.

The problem is, I tried to keep the artisan on my esc key for the day yesterday and I absolutely hate it. I adore looking at the thing, but I cannot stand pressing it, especially in comparison to a silky smooth set of KAT keycaps. I'm also a bit nervous that if I press it too much I might rub off some of the detail or color or something.

How do others handle this? Do you not mind pressing your artisans? Do you keep them on lesser-used keys? Do you only put them on for photoshoots?

[pepperskog]

I put one on esc key too, but that's not a heavily used key for me. How about putting it on the key under it? To the left of the 1 key? Might still be nice and balanced with the enter and space bar.

[biothermal]

I cannot stand pressing it, especially in comparison to a silky smooth set of KAT keycaps. I'm also a bit nervous that if I press it too much I might rub off some of the detail or color or something.

How do others handle this? Do you not mind pressing your artisans? Do you keep them on lesser-used keys? Do you only put them on for photoshoots?

First off, you probably don't have to deal with damaging the artisan. Most artisans are resin-casted and cured so that unless there's some kind of manufacturing defect you'd be hard pressed to do any irrevocable harm.

Now personally I do fall in the category of mostly only mounting artisans for photos, but I usually keep at least one artisan on the board at all times - usually the esc key.

But, if you don't like the look, you don't like the look. No one (I hope) is going to force you to mount it, and there are plenty of artisan storage options out there, with more coming out all the time

[cthalupa]

I'm torn. I have this awesome artisan from Keyluminati (my first). I will [eventually] have a perfect keycap set to pair it (KAT cyberspace) with and a great starter board that I know they will both look gorgeous on (kdb67 lite). My plan was to put the artisan on the esc key, which I think will look great with an accented Enter key and space bar.

The problem is, I tried to keep the artisan on my esc key for the day yesterday and I absolutely hate it. I adore looking at the thing, but I cannot stand pressing it, especially in comparison to a silky smooth set of KAT keycaps. I'm also a bit nervous that if I press it too much I might rub off some of the detail or color or something.

How do others handle this? Do you not mind pressing your artisans? Do you keep them on lesser-used keys? Do you only put them on for photoshoots?

I only recently managed to snag my first few artisans, so I don't yet have them in my possession. My general plan is to keep them on less used/unused keycaps.

For me, this includes the Esc. key - I've been using vim as my preferred text editor for many years now, and that's moved to using the same keybindings in other text editors, IDEs, etc. And a good chunk of vim users rebind their capslock key to esc, me included.

So I basically never hit esc itself, and I have zero need for capslock (Even when I type in all caps, I just hold down shift....), so it works out for me.

[Volny]

Putting it on a rarely used key is a decent idea, but the thing is that you'll still need to press it from time to time, and it'll still feel weird when you do. Possibly more so since it'll feel like an unexpected surprise each time.

Since it feels very different to press, consider putting it on a key that is very different. So, not something that's part of a normal workflow (like ESC, or even a rarely used key like ~ ), but something that you only press in unusual circumstances, or that does a very specific, unique function. For example PrintScrn, or Numlock. That way, the unusual sensation won't feel so out of place, because the key functionality itself is unusual. When you think about it, why does something like numlock feel exactly the same to press as every other key? Wouldn't it actually make more sense for it to have a click-in/click-out toggle feel? Or at least a stiffer spring so it's harder to press than the other keys?

I've ordered a cool looking artisan recently myself. It looks smooth, but it's flat, cubic and narrower than a normal key, so I'm sure I'd hate to press it as part of regular typing. So I plan on using it for a special macro key that I've recently mapped. I made a little program for myself that automatically calculates math from a selection. So, I can type something like 3*21.05+99.9, select it, press the key, and it will 'automagically' replace the selection with the answer: 163.05. This key seems perfect for an artisan to me: it's special, I'm likely to only press it 'mindfully' (rather than in the semi-conscious flurry of regular typing/computing that most other keys are), I'll never need to double-tap it, and I definitely don't want to hit it by accident.

Perhaps you have a similar key in your life (eg. maybe you only ever use F11 or INS to do something special and important in some program, like "render" or "go fullscreen"). Something that you do as a culmination or an adjunct to your work or play, rather than as part of your normal flow (hence there'll be no flow to be interrupted by the weird keycap texture)

[g_hack_it]

Since it feels very different to press, consider putting it on a key that is very different. So, not something that's part of a normal workflow

This is exactly what I'm doing at the moment and it works well, it just doesn't look nearly as good as I know it could. I guess playing with different layouts and figuring out what works will just be part of the fun once my kit(s) finally arrive.


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[MIGHTY CHICKEN]

Will really depend on the artisan , I don't use esc that much so I'm fine keeping a lesser expensive artisan on it and the entire f row n nav cluster will just be filled with my conquests.

[rowdy]

I have a Wrapped on Esc and a couple of Checker keys on F and J.  They do feel a bit odd but the Checker keys are great for finding the home position.  All 3 have a mostly flat top, and a similar profile to the rest of the keys, so general typing is fine.

If in doubt, you could always collect 3 favourite artisans and put them on PrtSc/ScrLk/Pause.