Modifying a keyboard, the Viking way

[Kodiak]

So, I've always been a HUGE fan of the steampunk keyboards done by sir Datamancer, and now every time I watch Warehouse 13 my urge gets greater and greater. This week at work I had some free time and so I've begun to design keys for a viking-inspired keyboard which utilizes an Elder-Futhark alphabet (and a couple of anglo-saxon runes, but I won't say which ones ) I would like to use mirror-finish steel and have the pieces laser-cut at my work, but I'm a bit shaky on details regarding personal use of the shop tools. I've also done some viking symbols in CAD that I'll post later which will find their place on some of the command keys. Also I've chosen a Pentimal Rune number system for use on all the numeric keys. Feel free to comment.

Celtic Knot


Triqueta


Freya


The Valknut


Entire keyboard


and here's a close-up of the "Return" or "vendinc" key


I hope to learn more of the Runic Calendar symbols and gather larger runes similar to the Helm of Awe. If anyone knows of cool-looking and authentic runes I could use, please post them here.

Buttons I still need:

Caps-Lock
Shift
Tab
Insert
Page Down
Print Screen
Scroll Lock
Num Lock

Feel free to post suggestions or ask questions.

[CaptainChewbacca]

That's pretty sweet, bro.

I don't think I know runes better than you, but someone here probably does.

[Feil]

It looks pretty cool. Couldn't you just show your boss the project and ask him if you can use the shop tools?

[Kodiak]

It looks pretty cool. Couldn't you just show your boss the project and ask him if you can use the shop tools?

Since the shop tools that I'd need are the CNC sheet metal laser cutter, it's not a question of ME doing it, but having it done in our shop. Right now I'm looking at http://www.emachineshop.com to see how they measure up and what the cost would be.

[Crossroads Inc.]

ok I hace to chime in here to say I find your "0" key VERY odd.

Your counting system seems simplt you have sticks, 1 2 3 4, then on the 5th stick, theres a "P" which is clearly 5, because then you have for the next symbols 5+1, 5+2 5+3 and 5+4 sticks for 9... BUT for "zero" you have what looks like two "5";s symbols... Is the 'zero' in ce;tic counting supposed to just be ten? did they have a "Zero" ?
would "60" be PP + (P+1) as in 6 and 10?

[CaptainChewbacca]

In the norse numbering system, 10 and 0 are interchangable. There's no way to tell which it is without context, sadly.

[Kodiak]

ok I hace to chime in here to say I find your "0" key VERY odd.

Your counting system seems simplt you have sticks, 1 2 3 4, then on the 5th stick, theres a "P" which is clearly 5, because then you have for the next symbols 5+1, 5+2 5+3 and 5+4 sticks for 9... BUT for "zero" you have what looks like two "5";s symbols... Is the 'zero' in ce;tic counting supposed to just be ten? did they have a "Zero" ?
would "60" be PP + (P+1) as in 6 and 10?

Ditto on what Chewie said, but with a Link. Most of the time the vikings actually just spelled out their numbers long hand, so I've used these pentimal runes for convenience sake.

[Johonebesus]

Are you a native English speaker? If so, the Anglo-Saxon Futhork might make more sense than the Elder Futhark. The Anglo-Saxon jer with a stem and a small circle in the middle would probably look a bit better. You might consider using jer for y, since yr is always a vowel, and jer was the semivowel, not the modern English dzh. You could use ger for modern j. V could be represented by a dotted feoh, which the Scandinavians sometimes did. Thorn there just looks wrong. Personally, I prefer the Anglo-Saxon sigil for s and the German version could be z. I also like Tolkien's convention of putting an extra stroke on cen to represent k, but that's just stylistic preference. Even Calc would look better with the other runes.

One significant question, why are you using ing for n instead of nyd?

[Kodiak]

One significant question, why are you using ing for n instead of nyd?

Because in using the Elder Futhark as much as possible it didn't occur to me to use Nyd for the letter "N" instead of "Ing". I'll look into it.

[Johonebesus]

One significant question, why are you using ing for n instead of nyd?

Because in using the Elder Futhark as much as possible it didn't occur to me to use Nyd for the letter "N" instead of "Ing". I'll look into it.

But nyd is in the Elder Futhark, though I think the German name is something like naudeth.