F62 New Model F

Rebuild of the famous (and hard to get) 1984 IBM Model F62 “Kishsaver” keyboard. A true love project by a single keyboard enthusiast started in 2016. I ordered mine in June 2017 and it arrived in April 2022. You can read about the story behind the project in his blog. If you’re lucky you can still order one on his side modelfkeyboards.com.

Facts⌗

Highlights⌗

Back in 2017/18 I used my IBM Model F. I was already used to keyboard layers, so having e.g. the arrow keys on the ijkl-keys was an easy adoption. The function keys on the left side are really nice and i noticed using it more often as usual. The biggest downside for me are the missing keys on the bottom row. I do use the “win”-key quite often as it is the main key of my window manager. Having control on the caps-lock key was also not very usefull because I use this key for my navigation layer. I was using F9/F10 for alt and win but it never felt natural and I always had to think about it when using it.

Than I got aware of the project to rebuild of the F62 and F77. Already using other 60% keyboards at the time the F62 was the perfect combination of familiar layout and superb switches and build quality. Even though the site states that the price is 50% cheaper than the original from 1984 it is quite expensive and was the highest keyboard purchase for me at the time.

In April 2022 it finally arrived. The keyboard is exceptionally well build (look at the weight) and arrived in full working state. It lools beautiful, is nice to type on and the sound is great. Except the spacebar, but there is documentation on how to improve it. While the layout would have been perfect in 2017 I switched to ortholinear in early 2019 and only used this keyboard for a couple of hours.

Sounds⌗

Images⌗