Part I is here (In which I washed my keyboard keys to pass the time during the Covid pandemic)
This is one dirty keyboard: four years of oily fingers, dust, bits of food, and other dirt.
Some people obsess over keyboards; others (the great majority I guess) couldn’t care less.
I’m somewhere in between.
I use a keyboard almost everyday: in the office during weekdays, and in the house, where I prefer to browse the web with my desktop PC. Also, I have used PCs since the days when keyboards were formidable pieces of hardware, not the kind of flimsy, plasticky “peripherals” bundled with today’s PCs that almost feel like an afterthought.
So I bought a mechanical keyboard, the Topre Realforce that used to be offered by JustSystems store.
Actually, I bought the Filco Minila first, but the lack of number keys made it unsuitable for the office. And now that I have the Topre keyboard for office and the Minila in the house, I have never looked for any other keyboard to obsess over with.
But now the Topre has gotten somewhat shabby from neglect, not having been cleaned since the Covid pandemic. So I brought it home and gave it a thorough cleaning it deserves.
Dirty keycaps removed. Look at the grime on the N keycap.
Soaking in soapy water before lightly brushing with soft brush.
Each keycap thoroughly cleaned, it’s time for rinsing in the sink.
Keycaps getting the afternoon sun beside the window with the plants.
This time I replaced the ESC key with a red one and the ENTER key with a grey one, and left the red SHIFT key, to add a small accent on the keyboard.
It’s like having a brand-new mechanical keyboard every four years.
