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Used to obsess over perfectly clean keycaps now I leave the grime alone
I spent last Saturday scrubbing a 1984 IBM Model F with q-tips and isopropyl alcohol for two hours, got every crumb out. Then I read a forum post from a restorer in Ohio who said light patina actually protects the plastic and keeps the letters from fading. So I stopped mid-clean on my old Cherry MX board and just put it back together. Has anyone else found that cleaning too much ruins the vintage feel?
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faithg262mo ago
Oh man, I totally get this! I have this old buckling spring board from 1987 that I bought off eBay. The guy said it was "well loved" which really meant it had years of coffee spills and dust bunnies living in it. I started cleaning it once and got half way through before I just stopped. Something about the wear patterns on the caps feels more honest? Like each scratch or faded letter tells a story. Now I just wipe the tops with a microfiber cloth and call it good.
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sarahhart2mo ago
Yeah but I mean I gotta push back a little here. I get the whole 'stories and patina' thing people talk about but for me grime is just grime. It's sticky, it attracts more dirt, and it can actually start to eat into the legends on really old double-shot caps if you let it sit too long. I had a late 80s Dell AT101 that I found at a thrift store and the spacebar had this dark greasy spot that wouldn't come off with just a wipe. Turned out the previous owner's hand oils had basically softened the plastic right there and it started to pit. I scrubbed that board clean and now the spacebar has a slight texture difference but at least it's not getting worse. Maybe it's just me but I think a clean board feels better to type on and the vintage feel comes from the switches and the layout, not from decades of dead skin cells.
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