Custom
Keyboards
Made to order
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7/26/11 6/8/11 |
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Here
are some of the custom keyboards that are available
for purchase. These keyboards are painstakingly handcrafted
works of art and have been seen in many publications
and on television, including SyFy Channel's "Warehouse
13" and NBC's "It's worth What?" These
keyboard "models" are shown merely to illustrate
some of the more popular combinations of available
options. More customizations are available upon request
including different fonts, personalized icons, symbols
or names on the spacebar, different metals, finishes
and faceplate materials. Please scroll to the bottom of this page or CLICK
HERE
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NEW! |
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"The
Sojourner" Polished brass keyboard with aged leather faceplate, cloth cord, and elegant key font on parchment. |
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"The
Sojourner" The Sojourner, except with a painstakingly buffed and artificially tarnished finish. |
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"The New Yorker" An elegant Art Deco design featuring a mixture of polished brass and aluminum MORE PICS & INFO |
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"The Marquis" Polished brass keyboard with acanthus-leaf engraving, cloth cord, leather faceplate and an elegant key font on parchment |
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The Marquis keyboard, except in polished aluminum with black leather faceplate, violet LEDs and a cloth cord |
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"The Reliquary" A keyboard with some surprises! Hidden in this attractive wooden box is a keyboard with padded velvet wrist-rest and aged leather faceplate. |
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"The Alchemist" This keyboard features a key set that is an homage to the medical arts, including many arcane alchemical and apothecarial symbols |
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NEW! Now in a "Mac-centric" all-white version! |
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An engraved brass keyboard featuring a Dragon on one side and a Phoenix on the other, with keys in CANGJIE layout |
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"The Aviator" Brushed Aluminum keyboard with a black leather faceplate and braided-steel cord that has a decidedly "mechanical" or "clean industrial" theme. |
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"The Aviator" The Aviator, except with a hand-polished mirror-like finish. |
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"The von Slatt Original" Polished Brass keyboard with a black felt faceplate, cloth cord, and "old typewriter" key font. |
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"The Archbishop" Originally designed to accompany my Archbishop PC, this keyboard is now available as a stand-alone design. It features a wooden faceplate in a red mahogany stain, a polished brass frame with quatrefoil designs in the side, a cloth cord, and keys in a fancy cursive font. |
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"The Industrial" An aged, dirtied, scuffed-up industrial keyboard with hex-nut keys, steel mesh faceplate, and gears for feet. |
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These
are keyboards that are not currently for sale, but are
here to illustrate the range of options for custom keyboards |
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"The Datamancer Ergo" The keyboard that inspired the Marquis. This keyboard featured a built-in buttonless trackpad mouse, padded wrist rest, and a unique forward-tilted design. No further ergonomic keyboards are available at this time. |
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"The Baron of Cyprus" An
all-copper keyboard with black leather faceplate and
cloth cord. |
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"Scrabble Keyboard" This keyboard features real Scrabble tiles on the keys. |
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"How much?" |
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The
approximate range on the "standard" models
seen above is about $800-1500 USD. Each keyboard is
intricately handcrafted, rare, unique and priced as "art" rather
than a "PC accessory". Some of the more intricate
pieces and custom designs can be a bit more. |
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"How long do I have to wait?" |
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The
typical turnaround time is about 2-3 weeks from order to
arrival for one of the "standard" models seen
above, though the delay time has been getting shorter lately
as I streamline my processes. I also occasionally have
an extra keyboard or two already assembled so it's possible
to have a keyboard in just a few days. For more intricate
keyboards, it could be a month or two. For super-custom,
one-off work, it could be as long as a 6-month build process,
but I provide many in-progress photos and discuss build
details with you the whole way. |
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"Can I get one for my Mac?" |
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Yes,
you can! I use a multi-OS core in my keyboards which
work well in any Operating System. If you request
a Mac keyboard, I will add the appropriate Mac keys
including F13-F15, Command and Alt-Option. Depending
on the Mac OS version, you may have to swap the Command
and Alt-option keys in your keyboard settings, but
that only takes one click of the mouse. My keyboards
do not have a built-in USB port in them like some Mac
keyboards, so you'll have to run your mouse cord down
to the PC instead. |
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"What do the keys feel/sound like?" |
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The
mechanical keys on most of my keyboards have the slightest
bit of a tactile "click" or "snap" to them,
which lends itself nicely to the "typewriter" theme
of the keys and provides a nice sense of touch-feedback. They
are slightly louder than a "soft
touch" style membrane keyboard, but not obnoxiously
so. On a noise scale of 1 to 10 with a laptop keyboard being
a 1 and a classic IBM Model M keyboard being a 10, my keyboards
are maybe a 3 or 4. |
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"How are the ergonomics?" |
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keyboards are pretty comfortable, and most of my customers
are writers and computer professionals who use their keyboards
all day long with no complaints, but my keyboards do sit
a little bit higher than a normal keyboard, so if you are
very particular about your keyboard ergonomics you might
want to use a padded wrist support with the keyboard. |
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"What LED colors are available?" |
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I
currently have Red, Blue, Green, Amber/Yellow, Violet/Purple,
and White. |
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"What's the connection format? |
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All my keyboards are USB |
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"What materials and finishes are available?" |
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I
can build metal keyboards in brass, aluminum, copper, or
steel in a brushed, polished, or antiqued finish. Wood
keyboards can be made in any choice of stain or finish. |
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"What about the faceplate?" |
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The
most common materials are leather, felt, and wood, but
I can make the faceplate material out of a wide range
of materials including metal, fabric, or even paper
(I add a sheet of clear protective acrylic) |
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"Can you tell me what "mechanical keyboard" actually means?" |
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Most "soft-touch" style keyboards (like the one they
give you for free when you buy a new PC) are called "membrane" keyboards,
meaning that, underneath the keys are two thin plastic sheets,
or "membranes", that each have half a circuit printed
on them with a conductive material. When you press a key
down, the key squishes these two flimsy membranes together,
which momentarily connects the two halves of the circuit.
This design is effective but not very robust and is very
vulnerable to dirt, dust, liquids, aging, and is basically
not supposed to last anyone more than a year or two. My keyboards
are
"mechanical switch" designs, meaning there is a
separate physical electronic switch on each key which provides
a much more reliable connection and is rated to industrial
specifications (something like "over 20 million" duty
cycles, or key presses). Comparable retail keyboards are
the Matias Tactile Pro and the Das Keyboard. |
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"Do you offer foreign-language keyboards?" |
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New! |
I've only very recently become able to make foreign-language keyboards in ISO format (UK, Spanish, German, French, etc). Though there is no increase in price, there will be an increase in the length of the build time for a while until I can locate a local supplier of Euro-layout keyboards in the high-quality mechanical-switch configuration I use in my keyboards. |
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| "Ok, this all sounds great. I want one! How do I order?" | ||
Drop
me an email at Datamancer@datamancer.net and
let me know what you would like. For the rest of the info,
see below. |
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Ordering Info |
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Ordinarily
I take a 50% deposit up front for parts and security,
with the rest due upon completion. Paypal is the easiest
method, but I will also accept personal checks and money
orders. I offer free shipping within the contiguous United
States, but will ship anywhere upon request. If you would like
to research a shipping quote on your own, my keyboards
usually ship in a box that is 24"x12.5"x8",
weighs about 6 pounds, and departs from Chino, CA, 91710. |
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Email Me: Datamancer@Datamancer.net |
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Thank you for your interest in my work, and I hope to hear from you soon.
-Richard "Doc" Nagy
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Noncommercial users are welcome to copy my images provided they acknowledge the source. I am more than happy to help people design or create their own steampunk contraptions, but if you are a company looking to steal my work for mass-production, please know that I have design patents, trademarks, and copyrights pending or in place on most of my designs, my logo, and my name. They will be brutally enforced if necessary. |
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