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Every #linear piece
Deep Dives
How HMX took over the mid-tier linear slot
Two years ago HMX was a name on a vendor page nobody pronounced confidently. Today the Cloud sits second on our W19 tracker and lands in half the $120 prebuilts the scene argues about. The rise wasn't an accident.
thock12 min read
Ideas
Spring swaps: what swapping the spring actually changes
Swapping the spring is the most-discussed mod that does the least of what builders expect. Here is what the spring actually controls, what it does not, and when the swap is worth the afternoon.
thock9 min read
Deep Dives
What Cherry's MX2A revision actually changed
Cherry's MX2A landed in 2023 with a real engineering update — factory lube, tighter tolerances, the same 100M-press lifespan. The reason the discourse cooled isn't that the switch failed; it's that the enthusiast slot it aimed at was already claimed by the time it arrived.
thock7 min read
Ideas
Pairing Oil Kings with the Mode Sonnet
This pairing has been on the bench for months, and a free Sunday finally made it happen. The Sonnet is a soft 65 with a top-mount-leaf gasket, and Oil Kings are a heavy factory-lubed linear — together they hit a register worth coming back to.
thock5 min read
Deep Dives
Why the Gateron Oil King sounds the way it does
Few stock linears earn the word 'creamy' on first press. The Oil King does, and the reason is not a secret stem material or a proprietary lube — it is a careful pairing of housing resins and a factory tune that other linears under thirty cents tend to skip.
thock5 min read
Ideas
The tape mod: what one strip of Kapton actually does
Three to five strips of painter's tape on the back of your PCB — that's the whole mod. The acoustic effect is real. Its magnitude depends almost entirely on the board underneath it.
thock8 min read
Guides
A beginner's guide to picking your first switch
Switches are the single biggest factor in how a keyboard feels and sounds, and the catalog has grown overwhelming. This guide narrows the entire market into three families, explains who each one is for, and gives a three-step path from curiosity to a confident first purchase. By the end, the reader can pick a category without second-guessing.
thock6 min read
Ideas
Stabilizer servicing: the one step most builders skip
Most builders lube their switches meticulously and treat stabilizers as an afterthought. The rattle that survives a full stab lube job almost always traces back to one overlooked contact point.
thock11 min read
Ideas
Switch films: do they actually do anything?
Thin POM shims between your switch housings cost five dollars and promise a tighter, better-sounding switch. The mechanism is real. Whether it matters on your specific switches is a separate question.
thock8 min read