Dicey Box - Bill Darrah by Brian Young

I was fortunate to have acquired this cool puzzle from ‘Monkeypuzz’ at Puzzle Paradise.

I’ve yet to unscramble this one and reassemble it as per the instructions so I’ll have to update that later..

Here’s the Description from Brian at Mr Puzzle:

“Edward Hordern IPP27 Puzzle Exchange – Gold Coast, Australia. August 2007.  200 made.
Presented by Bill Darrah.  Made by Mr Puzzle Australia. Designed by Bill Darrah.
Original Price: AU$70.00

The puzzle is to disassemble and reassemble the 12 piece wooden burr so that all the decorative routing is symmetrical.

The puzzle can go together in two different ways. One way, without the decorative routing symmetrical, is how the puzzle is presented when sold. You will have to completely take it apart so that you can then put it back together with all the routing symmetrical. This is a lot more difficult than it may first appear.

A very elegant design by Bill Darrah who is well known for designing very difficult puzzles. As well as being a burr it is actually a box with an inside space of 45mm x 45mm x 45mm. Puzzle made from Mackay Cedar.
Size: 100mm x 100mm x 100mm”

IPP 1994 Puzzle - Wolfgang Schneider by Kubi Games (Germany)

This puzzle is one of the coolest I’ve seen.  Obviously by the name it was a puzzle at the 1994 IPP but what makes this puzzle noteworthy is its IPP themed challenges.

The booklet that accompanies this tray puzzle mentions 20 different Challenges including a 4x4 cube.

I have added all of the booklet challenges, see pics below.

The Eclecticube by Kevin Holmes

I was fortunate to have acquired this puzzle.  It’s another gem from Kevin originally designed in the ‘90’s.

If you happen to have Rik & Kevin’s ‘Cube Compendium’ you’ll recognize the exploded view of this particular puzzle on the cover created by Frans de Vreugd.

My One and Only - Stewart Coffin Design #178-A by John Devost

I didn’t keep accurate records of my early puzzle builds so I can’t seem to recall having made any copies of this design.  In Stewart’s 2003 printed edition (by John Rausch) this particular puzzle was not named but now has been.

I decided I should probably make a few with some nice 3/4” cubes I had on hand.

Here’s a description from Stewart:

“I include this seemingly mundane puzzle design to show that there is still room for discovery within even this most common category of dissecting the plane - what I call ‘graph paper’ puzzles. The problem here was to find a combination using the five non-symmetrical pentominoes (made of five joined squares) plus one other pentomino that fit into a rectangular tray one way only. After a long search, this goal was finally achieved.

Then, using an amazing computer program called PuzzleSolver3D, I had the satisfaction of confirming that I had discovered the one and only combination that met all of my requirements. Try to top that if you can.

But there is more. Pleased with this lucky discovery, I generated a catalog of about 20 other symmetrical problem shapes, some with unique solution. Three are shown here, and the others are left to be rediscovered or improved upon.”

 

Aragon by Alfons Eyckmans

This puzzle had me stumped for over a week of intermittent attempts at disassembly but I finally succeeded!

Once I got the first side piece out you’d think that things got easier from there but not so much..as you can see from the move count, the 5th piece takes another 16 moves.

Move count is: 47-1-2-4-16-2-4-1-3-2-1-3-2

Alfons crafted this beauty in 2015 from Oak, Wenge and Benge.

Disentanglement Puzzles by Stuart Gee

Stuart included a trio of Disentanglement puzzles in a recent parcel he had sent me.

I must admit I’m simply terrible at solving this type of puzzle but these three appear to have been chosen with different levels of difficulties.

I first tried (very difficult) the one with two large blocks that have a myriad of chord running through it all, my chances of ever solving this one are slim to none.

The second one I tried seemed to be the (easy) one that has a square stick through a hole in another piece, as I managed to solve it rather quickly.

The third (difficult) one appears to be solvable but I’ve yet to accomplish that..

All are very nicely made, thanks again Stuart.

PMAU by Stuart Gee

Stuart was kind enough to include this clever tray design that is very reminiscent of classic ‘Coffin’ designs.

Four seemingly innocent pieces need to be placed within this frame and as is usually the case with this sort of puzzle your mind races to the thought that it looks like a cakewalk.  

Much like many Coffin designs this one plays on the fact that there are multiple sides that are begging you to place pieces alongside them until you quickly realize that it’s just not going to work.

I spent a considerable amount of time with this one until I thought I had come up with the intended solution but Stuart told me that I found an alternate solution, very nice design Stuart, thanks for sending it to the great white north.

Twice the Insanity by Stuart Gee

 

I recently received this very interesting puzzle from longtime puzzle designer Stuart from downunder.  I didn’t initially recognize this particular variant of the ‘Instant Insanity’ type puzzle as I’ve only ever seen the cube versions.  I had previously blogged about Rik van Grol’s ‘Complete Insanity’, however Stuart told me he came up with this version some 15 years ago.

This version features 10 pegs with ends coloured and your task is to place them in the pyramid frame so that no colours are aligned, now accomplishing that on one side seems fairly trivial but achieving that on both sides at once will likely drive you ‘insane’ lol..

Crown of Thorns by Brian Young

Brian made a run of 30 of this very cool puzzle in 2005 and I was fortunate to have acquired a copy from long time puzzler Stuart Gee from Australia.  Thank you Stuart.  See bottom photo of the goodies that he beautifully crafted and graciously included in my parcel.

Here’s Brian’s description from Mr Puzzle:

“The object of the puzzle is to disassemble the thirty pieces and reassemble into this attractive collection of stellated rhombic dodecahedrons.

This puzzle was conceived whilst making the Diagonal Twins exchange puzzle for IPP25. Brian just kept extending pieces to see where it would lead.

There are 288 saw cuts in this puzzle. Each piece is cut from a single piece of wood. No glue is used in the puzzle. The very fine tolerances of each saw cut are the secret to it fitting together well. The more pieces added to this type of puzzle the more magnified any small variance becomes. Where to place the darker pieces to create the pattern is part of the challenge.
The puzzle is made from different shades of Red Silky Oak, a native Australian wood. Size: 160mm x 160mm x 65mm.”

Presentation Box for Mark McCallum’s ‘Peanut Puzzle’

I started to contemplate making a box to keep my copy of Mark’s wonderful ‘Peanut’ puzzle stored safely in the Hexagonal Ring Configuration.

I had a few boards of Ambrosia Maple and thought this might be the perfect fit for the carcass of the box, it was also used for the top and bottom, properly floated to counteract any expansion issues.  Slipfeathers are all Holly as well as the box sleeve.

Here’s the description from my wood supplier for the Ambrosia Maple:

“Wormy Maple is one of the most unique wood types.  What is Ambrosia Maple lumber? 

Well it's not actually a species - but rather two things that happen to the wood when it has been infested by the Ambrosia beetle! 

The most obvious is the tiny holes from the beetle boring through, but it also leaves some interesting streaking caused from a fungus it carries on its legs. 

Of course it goes without saying all our lumber is kiln dried and these visitors are no longer an issue!”

Check out my original blog on Mark’s ‘Peanut’ puzzle.

Juno’s Headed Lattice

This is yet another missing Juno for my collection, I was excited to have acquired it from another puzzle friend.

Here’s Juno’s description from Pluredro:

“There were lots of off-cuts of Koto after we produced Slammed Car and the off-cuts were too good to be disposed of. So, Juno designed the puzzle to efficiently use up these off-cuts and it turned out to be Headed Lattice.

He made original plywood for the main part of the puzzle, but the amount of the end pieces made of Koto were not enough, and then he needed to produce extra end pieces using Utile.

Furthermore, although he planned to use PNG Rosewood for the middle layer of the plywood, after he dressed timber stocks, there seemed to be some of them which looked like Zebrano. That’s the reason why we ended up with a mixed combination of timber species for this puzzle.

Darker Jarrah timber is used for the Koto headed one and the Utile headed ones have a rather pink colored Jarrah. Please understand that you can choose the color of the head (end) pieces, but cannot choose the type of species, PNG Rosewood or Zebrano.

There are only four pieces to the puzzle, but it requires relatively high numbers of 20 moves to remove the first piece from the assembled shape. The pieces become unstable during assembling/disassembling the puzzle, but the end pieces prevent a shortcut solution done by rotational piece movements. The puzzle has only two possible assemblies and it is doable to burr puzzle lovers, we don’t say an easy puzzle though.

It is a big and heavy puzzle considering the number of the consisting pieces. All the sharp corners were beveled, and the surface of the puzzle is smoothly finished.

The puzzle is sold assembled. The solution to this puzzle will be supplied upon request by Burr Tools file format.”

Size: 120 mm x 120 mm x 70 mm

Number of pieces: 4

Material: Jarrah, PNG Rosewood or Zebrano, and Koto or Utile

Juno’s Pinned Framed Burr - L

I was fortunate to have tracked this puzzle down for my Juno collection and it now completes my ‘Pinned Framed’ series that includes this Large with the Medium and Small versions.

Here’s Juno’s description from Pluredro:

“Here is another representation of Framed Burr. It features pins and complex shaped grooves on the pieces and there are also grooves on the four sides of the frame to give an escaping exit to the pins. This is a level 149-15-2 burr puzzle meaning it requires 149 moves to remove the first piece from the frame, and another 15 and 2 moves for the second and third pieces.

Juno originally designed 57 moves for one piece and he was almost ready to produce them for our regular product. He wanted to reuse the off-cuts of Burmese Teak pieces and designed smaller pinned framed burr that can be made from the off-cuts. Those M and S sized puzzles had 50 and 40 moves solution and he thought that 57 moves for the L sized puzzle was not enough. He restarted the design from scratch and increased the moves of the L sized puzzle to 149.

Insanity guaranteed.

Of course, the puzzle is very difficult, but it doesn’t mean it is impossible for human beings to assemble without computer aids. Because of the smaller number of possible assemblies of the four internal pieces, some very serious puzzlers can find the orientation of the pieces and can track the way to the goal of the puzzle by unremitting and patient efforts. Although the numbers of the required moves for the solution is smaller than one of our product Meanders Box, this one is at least ten times more difficult than Meanders Box.

The puzzle is quite big and heavy. Please check the images below and then you can imagine how big the puzzle would be in your hands. The frame has concave on the four sides to make pushing the internal pieces easier.

The puzzle is sold assembled. The solution to this puzzle will be supplied upon request by Burr Tools file format.”

Size: 135 mm x 135 mm x 42 mm

Number of pieces: 5

Material: American Rock Maple, PNG Rosewood, Burmese Teak and stainless pins

Fairys Door Deluxe Edition by Michail Toulouzas

I’ve known Mike for a couple of decades now and he’s hands down the most talented puzzle craftsman, not only does he excel at making puzzles but some of his puzzle boxes are highly sought after around the globe.  He’s also mastered the art of wood turning and you can see a clip on his YouTube channel turning a knob for his Fairys Door.

Back when we had the Renegade Puzzlers forum we would often discuss various woodworking techniques and a sphere turning jig was brought up and sure enough Mike had a video of that as well!

Mike has a website ‘Puzzzlevision ’ that features most of his prior works, obtaining a piece from Mike is something of a challenge as his work is in such high demand and that brings me to the reason for this post.  Mike has crafted a ‘One of a Kind’ ‘Fairy’s Door’ to be auctioned at Puzzle Paradise shortly.

Here in his own words is his description:

“For information and to help me  add more people that may be interest in the ‘One of a kind’ deluxe edition Fairys door puzzle box.  I will say briefly that:

All fairys are 36 (+2 of IPPDC 34) + this one of a kind edition = 39 in total.

All 36 are the same!

The 2 from the puzzle contest have less details aesthetically because it was something I improved later.  (One of these copies is my own)

The ‘One of a kind’ has more final details aesthetically, different rare woods and an additional step in the solution.  

The wood in the Knob/Hinges and Magic Wand is Gabon Ebony.

What is cool about the Knob is that it has a loose ring in the middle but you can tell only in the video and not in the photo!

All I wish is that this copy will go to a home (or a museum) and that it will be respected accordingly.”

Stones are Greek Olivewood with a Palisander Frame

Door is Zebra wood (Quarter-sawn) - backings are Muteneye