The Hexatana is a 36 katana-inspired keyboard designed around hexagonal keycaps. It is the first proper keyboard I've designed.

Backstory

Years ago I saw the hexagonal keycaps by s-ol and their 0xC Macropad and 0x33 music keyboard. When I started to listen to 0x17's podcast about mechanical keyboards I got pulled deep into the rabbit hole that is mechanical keyboards. At some point I wanted to design my own keyboard. I really like the look of 3x5 boards, however, I didn't feel like designing yet another 3x5 board with slightly different splay and stagger. One day I was reminded of the hexagonal keycaps again, and it clicked in my head: I wanted to build a small keyboard with hexagonal keycaps. At that time I also just got a vault35 katana and enjoyed the layout. So with that in mind, I finalized the design to a 3x5+3 keyboard with hexagonal keycaps and a katana stagger. This is also where the name comes from, and which inspired the art on the PCB.

Versions

After having built the first version of the hexatana, I realized, that, when placing my hands in a $60\degree$ angle, the middle most thumb key is very hard to reach. Furthermore I received feedback, that the SOD323 I was using were hard to solder for some people. So I moved the thumb clusters one hexagonal unit further to the outside of the keyboard and used SOD123 diodes for easier hand soldering. The original layout features also a version build around the CH552T-MCU and the FAK-firmware. Then there is also a version made for the Gemini, which can be bought at keep.supply.