I began learning Morse a couple of years ago when my friend Gary (NG9T) got me interested in it with his Field Day QRP rig.  Eventually I found an old military J-36 (Mae West) at a yard sale for everyday use.  Eventually I wanted something nicer looking but all the "pretty" keys I found online were hundreds of dollars.

My local harware store had all the "little parts" such as the knurled brass knobs and acorn nuts and brass strip. The larger stock brass for the fulcrums and bar I ordered from McMaster-Carr.

I made the base of my morse key from Red Oak.  The knob is a satin black cabinet knob from the hardware store.  I stained the base oak with black highlights in the wood grain and finished it with three coats of polyeurethane.  I developed my way to "highlight" the wood grain by first spray painting the oak with flat black, then lightly sanding it.  This removes all the paint on the surface but leaves it in the grain crevices for a nice effect that really shows off the wood grain.

Initially I couldn't find a spring that felt right.  I inititally used a sall spring from an old SCUBA first stage regulator but it was too stiff.  The local harwarre store has a qhole cabinet full of every spring you can imagine and I found a cone-shaped spring that had just the right stiffness.  The knurled knobs on the bar allow me to adjust the travel for bothe ends of the bar.

I finished my key with a small engraved plate that has my call sign with the date I made it as the "serial number"

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