Well, 3rd shift usually never owns up to actually making the products… they just happen
But yes, that would be a huge misstep.
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I learned Hammerworks both dyesubs and produces their blank keycaps “in house”. CRP is their “Classic Reissue Profile” of the BSP blank caps used in the classic sets sold by Originative and sometimes Massdrop (3 rounds total from what I could find).
The 2018 round (‘BSP’ 4 or CRP 1) on Massdrop was the first buy to use Hammer’s own molds at a factory in Guangdong China, where the caps are still made today (Hammerworks is down the street, so it seems their quality control is really good for a reason). This round of production was so badly set back by an initial “ok” from BSP then a sudden back-out when they decided to close shop, that people apparently received random “we’re sorry” sets of caps with their orders when they were finally fulfilled.
I had been looking for a way to buy small batches of blank CRP caps to increase compatibility with my tiny boards but… suffice to say I’m SOL. If anyone’s got some BSP caps they’d wanna send me for comparisons sake I’d be uber happy. I’m so curious to know how close the CRP copies are, and whether they’re any better.
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That a mech market transaction, from interest to payment and (to be) shipping, can be done under 15 minutes. Sent a PM at 3pm PST, done at 3:14.
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Ha. I sold some switches this morning. Some back and forth and me dropping them at the post office only took about an hour.
I can’t do anything if I know I have someone’s money and they’re waiting on me. I would have a hard time running a group buy…
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nice, and lucky lol. It took me several months to sell my hyper 7 although tbf I get why it took that long lol
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That PBTFans “PBT” keycaps are starting to be smooth and shiny after not even 2 months of use. Even my ABS Aifei keycaps have lasted 3-4 times longer. That’s just sad, imo…
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That’s really disappointing. I had high hopes for that product line.
The first time I noticed “the shine” on my Apple Desktop Mouse in the 1990s, I thought, well that’s a sign of having fun and long hours of nerding around 
It never bothered me, mainly because I have no intention of selling my equipment. Gives me peace of mind to do what ever I want with it.
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Same. Shining up my set of deep navy to the point that nobody would want it except me.
I can appreciate your point. The strange thing is that I fully embrace wabi-sabi for most things like furniture, wood floors, dishes/cookware, old houses, books, etc., but still want my electronics to look brand new.
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Are you sure they’re PBT? I could totally be wrong, but I think they make some ABS sets as well despite PBT being in the name (which I find confusing but assume it’s from before they started doing ABS).
Learning what fillets are!
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To further complicate things, a fair few “PBT” sets out there are either composites or blends and do not have the same properties that pure PBT does.
Bigol’ plastic trivia time:
“Composite” as in one shot is PBT, and the other is something else like ABS or POM; usually ABS legends shot into PBT caps. Two different plastic materials shaped together.
“Blended” as in one or both shots are made with a mixture of PBT with some other plastic, usually ABS; the plastic structure itself is mixed together rather than just being physically adjacent.
Here’s why that matters for shine, if I understand correctly:
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Pure PBT is what’s called a crystalline thermoplastic. At room temperature, it has a crystalline structure - and when it actually melts, it melts pretty much all at once when a given temperature is reached - the structure breaks down at a certain point, and generally holds firm before it. This crystalline structure is what resists the wearing-away that causes shine. It also makes precise shaping more difficult, as it tends to warp as it cools and those crystalline structures set-in without perfect uniformity.
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ABS is what’s called an amorphous thermoplastic. Rather than having a certain melting point, it simply gets softer with heat. The hotter it gets, the softer it is (until it starts to burn and undergoes chemical changes). Even when “solid” the structure is somewhat pliable - “plastic”, if you will. That amorphous nature is what gives-way to shine. It also makes the plastic easier to shape precisely, as it tends to hold its shape once its cool enough to be stable and won’t further change on its own while cooling.
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Amorphous and crystalline plastics can be blended together to create a “semi-crystalline” plastic; this generally results in a material a bit more resistant to force and moderate temperatures than pure ABS, but less resistant than pure PBT. Such a blend can be desirable to add some durability or reach a desired balance of characteristics - but in the world of keycaps, it unfortunately acts as a point of confusion more often than not. To further complicate things, the lack of disclosure with blends means the end-consumer rarely knows if the caps will actually have the properties implied by “PBT”, or to what degree if they do.
I’m pretty sure that introducing any amount of amorphous plastic to an otherwise crystalline one will make it vulnerable to abrasive or chemical shining, at least to some degree. Only pure PBT will fully carry the characteristics we associate with it in the keeb community.
That said, I think even pure PBT can shine with enough abrasion - though I also think normal typing for most people would not cause this even over a long period of time. I have a mouse that’s supposed to be PBT - and while it does have shiny spots where my index finger and thumb rest, it took years of extended daily use for them to appear. The thing is basically a worry-stone half the time, so I think it’s doing great, lol.
I’m not sure if there’s a foolproof way to tell them apart visually - but generally speaking, pure PBT will have a more dry, sometimes almost porous appearance - kinda like bone. Depending on how it’s made, some surfaces might appear to have a fine grainy or fibrous texture apart from any intentional texture in the tooling. Almost sparkly.
ABS doesn’t look “wet” per se, but doesn’t have the desiccated quality that pure PBT tends to have. Blends tend to look more like ABS than pure PBT. Put another way; PBT looks like it would “crunch” if you bit down on it really hard, where ABS looks like it would “smush” - if that makes any sense. 
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Only their half transparent sets like the “Neon” set were ABS. All other sets are PBT, at least according to KBDFans. I have sent them a message with some photos and they were sent to their warehouse and such, but so far i haven’t heard anything back from them.
This is what the fresh keycaps look like
And this is what some of the keys look like now after 1 month of use. The texture looks and feels a lot smoother than before. I’m starting to have my doubts about these being PBT.
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Thanks, this is extremely interesting.
The cost of freight is starting to come down and may be accelerating quicker than expected. Price of freight from China to Canada dropped by 14% over the last month. Fingers crossed this trend continues and we can get back to somewhat normal freight prices that have been the root of many of the inflationary costs over the past 18 months.
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My manager who was fired is a hoarder. Im going through all the spare parts he ordered and its like most of the ones are for orders already completed or idk why he ordered a specific part for something not even wrong with a unit. This entire shelf is stuff i found in his area. Also one of the orders was for a unit that came in in 2020…
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Good grief, that stuff looks unopened even. I didn’t realize hoarding behavior could spill over into your work, but I guess I do now.
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yep, several items are for units that have been sitting in our repair queue for several hundred days…
Hello. Total noob. Today I learned about the existence of KLE from your post of over two years ago here. Much appreciated! 
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