I always kind of just dismissed films until I saw a video from @Walkerstop where I was way surprised how much of a sound difference it made and now I’m converted.
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That video opened my eyes too. I ordered films about 30 seconds after watching that video
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Dremel. It comes with some basic buffing pads, for polishing jewels I think. I’m hoping, what’s good for lights is good for my fingers.
Films are essential for Creams, the tops are so wobbly without them.
I think with the current Gateron Leaf issue, Creams are now my favorite linear
Oh yeah. I’m going to hold off on getting Gateron Black Inks. After tinkering with 10 sample Inks I have to test different lubes and effect of film, contact leaves are now loose on all the switch. As result:
- I messed up two switches because their leaves came out without me noticing and got deformed when I tried to close the switch. One turned into a decent tactile even. LOL.
- Another two switches started to sound rattly on upstroke.
Loose leafs are not really harmless as some observed, at least for modders. So, until the loose leaf problem is resolved, I’m pushing Inks to back of the list of switches to try full board with. For now, I’m all ears for how Marshmallow switches sounds and feels.
UPDATE: Just ordered some Cherry MX Blacks from NovelKeys to replace the MX Browns on my son’s Masterkeys Pro S I’m rebuilding. While I doubt retooled MX black molds are now as smooth as it was when first introduced, it should still be decent. At least I’ll get a diminishing whiff of the famed retooled black.
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You have to understand that there’s three prongs to the whole Retooled Black hype.
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Cherry as a brand name - I mean, there’s a huge
propaganda campaignmarketing push that they’re superior, and there’s a certain panache with a Cherry MX Black when compared to the wimpy, inferior Gateron Black - or, horrifyingly, Outemu Black! -
Smoothness is relative - they were never as smooth as peak Gateron or Tealios V1, despite the marked improvement. The sound signature of Cherry is also something that was unmatched until, well, Creams came around and @Walkerstop brought upon us the second coming of frankenmodding… which leads to the final point.
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Nathan Kim - Mr. Sleeves himself vouche(d? s?) for them for the longest time, and so much of his builds have them and have amazing sounds because of his keyboard wizardry.
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Oh, I understand hype in general very well. And I take opinions of others, regardless of fame or friendship, with a boulder-sized attitude problem grain of salt. My interest in retooled black is purely an attempt to get back to basics to see how much I can improve them with all the modding-fu I’ve learned so far. Thanks for the long input though. 
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This thread is really a great resource for linear people like myself. I’ve been getting back into keyboards recently and I’m surprised by all the new technology. I haven’t read through this entire thread but I wonder if you have tried out silenced linears. I’m curious what your thoughts are on them and which stock/combo switches are the best from the ones you might have tried.
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I have not, mainly because I wasn’t happy with silent tactiles (Zilents V1 and V2) and read elsewhere that silent linears aren’t that different. Most common problem with silent switches seems to be sticky padding. I haven’t experienced that myself.
What I did notice was that Zealios feels much smoother than Zilents. Silent switches’ scratchiness seems to come from the padding. To the eyes, paddings don’t touch the sides but smothering padding areas with Christo-Lube makes them feel smoother up to a point.
I tried some Cherry Silent Blacks and quite liked them, and was looking forward to the Silent Inks, but then the leaf issue happened… when the new batch comes in, i’ll get some though. The soft mooshy feeling of the silents is something really nice, and I wanna try other silent linears!
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Yeah I’ve heard that people like silenced stems for the feel even beyond the sound. One of the reason I’m interested. I’ve ordered 10 silenced zeal linears to try out on my modular board. I’ve read some people swapping out silenced cherry stems in zeal housings but I’m not sure if this was before zeal released their own silenced switches.
It’s interesting you say that they are more scratchy than stock zealios. I’m not sure why that would be since it should only affect the top and bottom in theory? hmmm
Holy moly zeal switches are expensive btw. Being Canadian in this hobby sucks!
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Not really. It felt as if paddings were touching the sides, not unlike sliding styrofoam against a wall. Maybe it’s just me.
Yeah krelbit started the whole Cherry Zilent thing before Zilents were a real product. Not sure if they’re still considered better than actual Zilents or not.
And odd that you mention it being expensive to order Zeal products in Canada, every time I’ve gotten something from them it’s shipped from Canada. Their stuff is just expensive in general.
I’ve got some stock silent inks in a leaf60 that I use at work and I don’t have any real problems with them, I’m generally pretty happy with the feel.
Yeah I think they are in Canada. Everything being in USD just hurts.
TIL inks exist. Need to check them out when they fix the leafs or whatever. Wtf are all these new switches.
I think the sound of scratchy linear switches is really white noise. I can hear it from retooled blacks, even lubed, making me appreciate Tealios and Inks even more. Feel of the scratchiness is less distracting compared to sound.
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I know exactly what you’re talking about. I got some retooled blacks a while back to see what the hype was about and put them in a tofu and it was something I hadn’t really noticed before, but there there is definitely a noise they make while sliding on the downstroke and upstroke, which was not nearly as pronounced on other switches. That being said it was my only board with linears and I still use it a bunch. That’s how I got started on linears.
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Thickness and density of keycap and keycap material mitigates scratchiness.
With combination of thick PBT and PPS keycaps, my scratchy unlubed retooled blacks are now bearable enough to be used. I think SA keycaps will work as well.
I’ve no idea how long it takes to break-in retooled blacks. If successful, I’m going to try breaking-in Creams unlubed.