Hi everyone! I'm from a small keycap factory in China called "Little Steel Egg." Today I want to share the journey of how our very first product went from something I randomly found online to an actual metal keycap you can hold in your hands.
Quick heads-up: I originally wrote this in Chinese and then translated it, so if anything reads a bit awkward, my bad in advance!
So here's how it started. I was killing time one day, mindlessly scrolling through random pics online, when suddenly this butterfly keycap render popped up預nd I was INSTANTLY hooked. The shape, the lines... just perfect.
I went full detective mode, searching everywhere trying to find who made it so I could buy one. Taobao? Nope. Xianyu? Nothing. International sites? Not a trace. Eventually tracked down the original artist, and they said... no plans for production anytime soon.
...Fine.
I'll make it myself then.
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Drawing this thing was WAY harder than I thoughtAt first I figured, just trace that render, how hard could it be?
Naive.
Once I actually started drawing, I realized half the structures in that render weren't even manufacturable. If we'd forced it, the keycap would've "bottomed out" HARD様ike, the stem would hit the PCB directly. Basically a decorative piece you can't actually use.
So back to square one.
I went through tons of reference photos傭utterflies landing on flowers, trying to capture that "just landed lightly" feeling. Ended up moving the butterfly from the lower-left (where it was in the original) to the lower-right of the keycap. Why? When I'm typing, my eyes naturally glance at the upper-left area of my keyboard. With the butterfly on the lower-right, I can see the whole thing clearly when looking at the ESC row. Just feels better to me.
Oh, and I redesigned the wings completely妖idn't follow the original. While I was working on this, some fellow hobbyists warned me that another shop had already released a replica version. I checked it out, and... how do I put this? The wings looked kinda stiff. Like a pinned butterfly in a display case. I wanted something alive, like it might flutter if you blew on it.
So I made the wings asymmetrical, with natural curves. If you line up a whole row, each butterfly has its own subtle angle溶o cookie-cutter stiffness.
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Four samples later, the tool marks finally disappeared
Our first metal prototypes: four pieces, mainly testing if the left wing could be machined cleanly.
First batch came back羊ight wing smooth as silk, left wing covered in tool marks. Sure, we could hand-polish them out, but I'm kinda OCD about this stuff. If the machine CAN get it right, why should I settle for manual fixes?
Three rounds of adjustments later, fourth batch finally nailed it. Zero defects, straight off the machine.
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First I 3D-printed one, just to test if it'd actually work
While waiting for metal materials, I couldn't sit still. 3D-printed a plastic sample to test if the internal structure would interfere with keypresses.
Threw it on a board耀mooth travel, no issues at all.
But plastic had one fatal flaw: the butterfly details got all blurry. Those crisp lines in the render? On plain colored plastic, they just melted into a mess. Killed the aesthetics completely.
So plastic option got scrapped immediately. Waited for metal.
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Choosing colors nearly made me pull my hair out
Once the metal blanks were ready, time to pick colors.
I really wanted a titanium shade, but the anodizing shop I work with didn't have it in their swatch book. Around that time, I dropped by to pick up some small parts I'd sent earlier, flipped through their color samples for ages, held them up against the light comparing with their master technician. Finally settled on four:
Titanium (not exactly what I originally imagined, but still looks premium)
Red (festive vibe, great for certain builds)
Pink (so many people asked for this)
Silver (can't go wrong, timeless)
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That final gleam? That's when the butterfly really comes alive
The finished product is CNC-machined from solid metal用recision-wise, the photos speak for themselves.
But I really want to highlight the surface finishing:
We started with bead-blasting the whole keycap, giving it this nice fine-grained texture. Then we polished the butterfly area separately預nd this step is CRUCIAL.
After polishing comes anodizing. The polished butterfly catches light DIFFERENTLY. From certain angles, the reflected colors shift耀ometimes warmer, sometimes cooler. Tilt it a bit, and it's like the butterfly is actually moving.
That split-second of wing-flutter? Frozen right there on your keycap.
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Just a few personal thoughts at the end
From a tiny render file, to hunched over my computer drawing designs, making samples, tweaking toolpaths, agonizing over colors... to finally holding that gleaming metal butterfly in my hands.
The journey was exhausting, ngl. There were times I wanted to quit. But every small win forward, that little voice kept whispering: "what if this actually works?"
And now... it actually does.
We'll be running a group buy soon, sharing this butterfly keycap with anyone who vibes with it. If you're interested, keep an eye out for updates!
(This post was written by me, personally. Might be a bit rambly, no grand philosophy here曜ust wanted to honestly share how we got from point A to point B.)
