Something like this? The heavy stagger is great, 42 keys is almost perfect, but the thumb placement is – for me – horrible. Having to move my thumb to practically under my palm is just terrible ergonomics.
This thumb layout reminds me more of the ErgoDox variants, and is far better placement. Is there a layout close to this?
I use a cantor keyboard daily and I love it, it looks like it fits your description quite well. There are a lot of vendors, I got mine from https://42keebs.eu/shop/kits/pro-micro-based/cantor-pro-lp-40-low-profile-hotswap-split-ergo-kit/
Hah! I’m having trouble distinguishing between the Cantor and the Piantor Pro, which is what I’m currently using.
My issue with these is the thumb key placement. The innermost two are fine, but having to tuck my thumb almost into my palm to reach those outer (looking at the keyboards, or inner, if you look at each hand) keys is not very ergonomic for me. It’s also a fairly wide horizontal span to move the thumb, and sequences requiring inner:outer are both tedious and unavoidable.
I don’t doubt you like it; for me it’s not ideal.
Thanks for the suggestion!!
Ah it seems that I misunderstood the image you provided. I have the outer thumb keys mapped to keys I don’t often use (GUI and Alt) so I’m okay with them.
Maybe try looking at all the builds people share on kbd.news? I’ve also heard that it’s not super difficult to modify open source designs and order the PCBs yourself, but I haven’t tried it.
Hope you can find something that works for you