The feel of a mechanical keyboard switch comes down to four measurable things: the force curve it presents as you press, where along the travel that force peaks and drops, whether it makes a noise at the actuation point, and how far the key travels before it registers a press. Everything else - brand, color, marketing name - is downstream of those.
A mechanical keyboard is one where each key sits on its own complete switch: a housing, a spring, a stem, and metal contacts that close when you press. That is the whole distinction from a membrane or rubber-dome board, where a single rubber sheet spans the whole keyboard and a key press just collapses a dome underneath it until it shorts two traces on a shared circuit sheet. On a membrane board, every key shares one deformable surface, so pressing one key slightly loads its neighbors, the bottom-out is soft and vague, and the board degrades as the rubber fatigues. On a mechanical board, each switch operates independently, so a keypress is a discrete event with a defined force profile, and you can replace one switch without touching the rest.
Linear, tactile, and clicky are three different force curves, not three quality tiers
A linear switch pushes back with steadily increasing force from the moment you touch it to the moment it bottoms out. There is no bump, no click, no feedback other than the spring's resistance. Popular examples are the various "red" and "black" switches from Cherry and the many clones of them. Red variants are light, blacks are heavier. The appeal is consistency and speed: nothing interrupts the downward motion, so if you are holding a key down to strafe in a game, or typing in a fast rhythm, there is nothing to push through. The cost is that you get no tactile confirmation of actuation. You find the bottom of the travel by feel, and you will bottom out hard on every press unless you train yourself not to. That is loud against the plate and hard on your fingers over a long session.
A tactile switch has a bump partway down the travel. Force rises, then there is a distinct increase in resistance and a sudden drop as the stem slips past the bump, and actuation happens right around that drop. Brown switches are the common light-tactile example; there are much sharper ones, and much rounder ones. The bump tells your finger "the key registered" without a sound, which is why tactile switches are the usual recommendation for shared offices and open-plan rooms. The trade-off is that the bump is a physical obstacle. On a sharp tactile switch with a heavy spring, holding a key down for a long time is tiring in a way a linear switch is not, because you are repeatedly pushing over a wall.
A clicky switch adds an audible click, usually from a separate click jacket or a click bar that snaps against the housing as the stem passes the bump. Blues are the classic example. The click and the bump are separate mechanisms that can be tuned independently, which is why some clicky switches have a loud click and a subtle bump while others are the reverse. The honest assessment: the sound is genuinely useful feedback for typing accuracy, and it is genuinely antisocial in any room with another person in it. If you have never used one, the volume is higher than you expect from a video.
Actuation force and travel distance matter more than the color name
Two numbers describe most of what you will feel. Actuation force is how much pressure is required to register a press, commonly quoted in grams. Travel distance is how far the key moves, both to the actuation point and to the bottom of the stroke. A light switch around the low end of the common range feels fast and can be fatiguing to rest your fingers on, because the weight of your hands alone may be enough to trigger keys. A heavy switch feels deliberate and stable under resting fingers but punishing for long typing sessions. Most people land somewhere in the middle and then discover that the spring weight they like for typing is not the spring weight they like for gaming.
Actuation point matters for a different reason. If a switch actuates early in the travel, you can type with shallow presses and never bottom out, which is quieter and faster once you build the habit. If it actuates late, near the bottom, you will always bottom out and always make the bottom-out noise. This is why two switches with identical force curves can sound completely different in the same keyboard: the case and plate amplify whatever happens at the end of the stroke, and a switch that actuates early simply produces less of it.
Switch mount and keyboard construction change the feel as much as the switch does
The same switch in two different boards does not feel the same, and this surprises people who buy switches expecting a fixed experience. A switch mounted in a stiff metal plate transmits vibration directly into the case, which produces a sharper, higher-pitched sound and a harder bottom-out. The same switch in a flexible plate, or mounted directly to the PCB with no plate at all, gives a softer landing and a lower, rounder sound. Gasket mounting, where the plate or PCB is suspended on soft material rather than screwed down, adds a small amount of vertical give across the whole board, and that gives every key a slightly cushioned bottom-out regardless of which switch is installed.
Case material and internal volume do the rest. A dense, heavy case absorbs vibration and produces a deeper sound; a thin plastic case resonates and sounds hollow. Foam, silicone, and other filler inside the case reduce echo. None of this changes the force curve, but all of it changes what you hear and how the bottom-out feels in your fingertips, which is most of what people mean when they say a keyboard "feels good."
Lubrication and spring weight are the two adjustments that actually change character
Factory switches are not lubricated consistently, and the difference between a dry switch and a properly lubricated one is larger than the difference between many switch models. Lubricant applied to the stem rails and the spring reduces friction, which removes the scratchy, gritty sensation on the downstroke and softens the sound. Over-lubricating is a real failure mode: too much grease on the tactile legs of a tactile switch will round off the bump until it feels linear, and too much on the spring can make it sluggish. If you are buying switches to try, buy a small quantity unlubricated first, decide whether you like the curve, and only then invest in lubricating a full set.
Swapping springs is the other lever. A lighter spring in a tactile switch makes the bump feel proportionally sharper, because the bump force stays roughly the same while the baseline resistance drops. A heavier spring in a linear switch makes it feel more controlled and reduces accidental presses from resting fingers. Spring weight and switch type interact, so a switch you dislike at one weight may be excellent at another.
Cleaning and choosing: practical decisions, in order
To clean a mechanical keyboard, first remove it from power and, if it is hot-swappable or you are comfortable desoldering, pull the keycaps. Keycaps go into warm water with a little dish soap, soak, agitate, rinse, and dry completely - overnight is safer than an hour, because trapped water in a stem will drip into the switch. Loose debris between switches comes out with compressed air, a soft brush, or a vacuum on low. Do not pour liquid into the case. If a spill happens, unplug immediately, remove keycaps, and let the board dry for several days before applying power; the failure is usually corrosion on the PCB traces, not the switches themselves. For routine maintenance, a microfiber cloth and a brush handle most of it, and a full teardown is worth doing rarely, not monthly.
To choose a mechanical keyboard, decide the three things that are hardest to change later: the layout, the mounting style, and whether the board is hot-swappable. Layout determines how much desk space you give up and how long it takes your hands to relearn the modifier positions. Mounting style determines whether the board feels stiff or cushioned, and you cannot retrofit it. Hot-swap sockets let you change switches without soldering, which matters enormously if you are unsure what you like, because the honest answer is that nobody can predict from a description whether a given force curve will suit their hands. Buy a hot-swap board, buy a handful of switches in each category, and spend a week with each set. That costs more up front than picking one board and committing, and it is the only reliable way to end up with something you actually like typing on.