Vintage Cherry MX Black Sources

[PointyFox]

What are some sources for vintage Cherry MX Blacks?  I mean the really smooth kind.

[jdcarpe]

Old (80s) Cherry keyboards or WYSE terminal keyboards. But since Soarer made his WYSE converter available, they are useful for more than just harvesting switches and keycaps now.

[PointyFox]

Old (80s) Cherry keyboards or WYSE terminal keyboards. But since Soarer made his WYSE converter available, they are useful for more than just harvesting switches and keycaps now.

I've had 2 Cherry keyboards with MX Black and both had the gritty mx black switches.  Not sure the dates on them, but they were either 80s or early 90s.

[Pacifist]

Old (80s) Cherry keyboards or WYSE terminal keyboards. But since Soarer made his WYSE converter available, they are useful for more than just harvesting switches and keycaps now.

I've had 2 Cherry keyboards with MX Black and both had the gritty mx black switches.  Not sure the dates on them, but they were either 80s or early 90s.

They need to be really old, early 80's prefered

[eth0s]

Hey, I've got 7 WYSE terminal keyboards from late '80's or early '90's, with buttery smooth MX blacks.





The keyboards came from a law firm that switched to the newer WYSE rubber dome keyboards (fools).  Anyway, I think those guys used to smoke in the office, cuz, the keyboards are pretty yellowed.  But with Soarer's controller and a bath in the old retr0brite solution, they might be pretty sweet keyboards again.  Otherwise they are good for harvesting 105 vintage MX blacks.

Note:  they also come with the original WYSE thin doubleshots.  And the MX black switches are plate mounted, requiring you to desolder them.

PM me if you want one.  Shipping is going to cost a few $'s, cuz they weigh about 3 lbs each.

[nubbinator]

I've had 2 Cherry keyboards with MX Black and both had the gritty mx black switches.  Not sure the dates on them, but they were either 80s or early 90s.

They need to be really old, early 80's prefered

There's no guarantee you'll get the "vintage" blacks.  I've had boards from the early 80s without them and boards from the late 80s/early 90s that had them and had boards with a mix of switches.  In my experience, there's no guarantee that you'll find "vintage" blacks.  Of course, I'm also of the opinion that vintage blacks are just broken in blacks since I've had bad "vintage" blacks and fantastic old blacks and new blacks (I've found at least three different switch top styles on black switches).   Cap thickness with Wyse isn't really an indication either.

[eth0s]

I've had 2 Cherry keyboards with MX Black and both had the gritty mx black switches.  Not sure the dates on them, but they were either 80s or early 90s.

They need to be really old, early 80's prefered

There's no guarantee you'll get the "vintage" blacks.  I've had boards from the early 80s without them and boards from the late 80s/early 90s that had them and had boards with a mix of switches.  In my experience, there's no guarantee that you'll find "vintage" blacks.  Of course, I'm also of the opinion that vintage blacks are just broken in blacks since I've had bad "vintage" blacks and fantastic old blacks and new blacks (I've found at least three different switch top styles on black switches).   Cap thickness with Wyse isn't really an indication either.

+1 to this ^.  I think the buttery smooth vintage blacks are really the result of heavy use.  All the rough parts get worn super smooth. 

[Pacifist]

We need to invent a device that actuates switches over and over to make them smooth

[rowdy]

I have a Link terminal keyboard from circa 1988.  It has MX blacks, and they are as smooth as!

But the Cherry logo on the keycaps is the larger one from the newer black switches, so I dunno.

[nubbinator]

We need to invent a device that actuates switches over and over to make them smooth

I would imagine this would work:

NSFW, but not in any way graphic:

More

I have a Link terminal keyboard from circa 1988.  It has MX blacks, and they are as smooth as!

But the Cherry logo on the keycaps is the larger one from the newer black switches, so I dunno.

Yeah, that's why I say it's just broken in and well aged switches, not some other magical component. 

[blackbox]

Some maltrons have vintage black

[PointyFox]

I've had 2 Cherry keyboards with MX Black and both had the gritty mx black switches.  Not sure the dates on them, but they were either 80s or early 90s.

They need to be really old, early 80's prefered

There's no guarantee you'll get the "vintage" blacks.  I've had boards from the early 80s without them and boards from the late 80s/early 90s that had them and had boards with a mix of switches.  In my experience, there's no guarantee that you'll find "vintage" blacks.  Of course, I'm also of the opinion that vintage blacks are just broken in blacks since I've had bad "vintage" blacks and fantastic old blacks and new blacks (I've found at least three different switch top styles on black switches).   Cap thickness with Wyse isn't really an indication either.

+1 to this ^.  I think the buttery smooth vintage blacks are really the result of heavy use.  All the rough parts get worn super smooth. 

I doubt it because I've had boards with all smooth vintage blacks, and commonly pressed keys like 'E' felt the same as keys like "pause/break".

[kaz]

Could vintage blacks just have a slightly weaker spring? Someone needs to disassemble the two and figure it out.

[mougrim]

Kinda. I have old WYSE terminal board, but I ain't decided what to do with it yet - either sell or try to convert. But it feel really, really smooth - not really what I look for in switches, but nice...

[IvanIvanovich]

The problem I see with many of the terminal boards is often times I suspect they had been refurbished over the years... switches replaced and so on. It's not break in at all either... as I have NIB vintage G80 models with super smooth vintage blacks. In case of Cherry it's all about getting boards made before 1991, but before 1988 is even better. G80-1000HA* models would be an excellent chance, and any G80-0*** MX model pretty much a guarantee even though I feel dismantling them is a terrible thing to do. Other boards like those made by Dah Yang (Unitek, Magitronic, Dytcom, etc) most often have blacks, but you may find blues as well. Very old Qtronix may be an option if you see them for cheap... but again they could have blues or high chance some kind of MX clones...
Or if you want something a little different, hunt down one of the old TA typewriters that have the MX linear white/clear switches. Personally these are my favorites, but I haven't had a lot of luck getting more of them to fill up full keyboards larger than 60%.

[BlueBär]

Could vintage blacks just have a slightly weaker spring? Someone needs to disassemble the two and figure it out.

They sometimes have a slightly weaker spring, but that is because of use and age. The spring does not affect the smoothness.

[khaangaaroo]

It's not break in at all either... as I have NIB vintage G80 models with super smooth vintage blacks.

I doubt it because I've had boards with all smooth vintage blacks, and commonly pressed keys like 'E' felt the same as keys like "pause/break".

^This is truth.

People need to stop spreading misinformation that vintage blacks are just heavily worn blacks. Very worn modern blacks, even lubed, will still never be as smooth as NIB vintage blacks. Get your hands on one of each and compare side by side before you start saying things.

[nubbinator]

If you want people to believe you, the vintage Black proselytes, you should organize a blind test between new "vintage" Blacks, used "vintage" Blacks, used old Blacks, new new Blacks, and used new Blacks.  If you want people to believe your claims, you need to prove them instead of shifting the onus to the doubters.  I speak from my own experience with them and Cherry's statement about them, but I'm willing to change my beliefs if there is sufficient evidence.

[SpAmRaY]

If you want people to believe you, the vintage Black proselytes, you should organize a blind test between new "vintage" Blacks, used "vintage" Blacks, used old Blacks, new new Blacks, and used new Blacks.  If you want people to believe your claims, you need to prove them instead of shifting the onus to the doubters.  I speak from my own experience with them and Cherry's statement about them, but I'm willing to change my beliefs if there is sufficient evidence.

I wonder if anyone ever did any of the 'testing' that was talked about a few months ago. I was hoping we would get some answers from that.

[BlueBär]

I wonder if anyone ever did any of the 'testing' that was talked about a few months ago. I was hoping we would get some answers from that.

I let a friend of mine test Vintage Blacks and normal Blacks and asked if he felt a difference. He did and described the normal Blacks as a bit more scratchy.

[mougrim]

I wonder if anyone ever did any of the 'testing' that was talked about a few months ago. I was hoping we would get some answers from that.

I let a friend of mine test Vintage Blacks and normal Blacks and asked if he felt a difference. He did and described the normal Blacks as a bit more scratchy.

Hmmm.... not purely blind testing, but close enough

[BlueBär]

Hmmm.... not purely blind testing, but close enough

Well they look the same if you don't look very close and I had keycaps from the same set in the same profile on them so I would call that test fair.

[davkol]

• randomly mix vintage and modern switches on a keyboard
• type on the keyboard
• rate smoothness of each key
• remove keycaps and find out, which switches are which

[stancato9]

I've been looking for these for quite some time now. If anyone has a source, or wants to sell me some for a fair price I would appreciate it.

[BlueBär]

• randomly mix vintage and modern switches on a keyboard
• type on the keyboard
• rate smoothness of each key
• remove keycaps and find out, which switches are which

I can send you a few if you want?

[khaangaaroo]

I've done that before, shipped a single new vintage switch along with a single new modern switch from wasdkeyboards to members here so just to convince them

For me, the thing that points to vintage blacks not being smooth by heavy use is that all the switches feel the same across the entire board for every board I've acquired with vintage switches.

[davkol]

I've already bought a set from kint, but it'd be nice to have more data in the long run. Too bad I need to focus on different stuff these days.

Anyway, I've conducted an experiment similar to yours, will post results later, if I don't forget about it (as usual).