I recently received this cool puzzle, it has a level move count of 11.2.2.2.
Osanori really creates incredibly tricky designs using only a few pieces, this puzzle has four pieces that need to be manoeuvred into its frame.
There’s a few iterations of the ‘Petit’ puzzles by Osanori, namely ‘Petit Pack’, ‘Petit Ring’ and ‘Petit Puzzle’.
When I first picked up this seemingly simple burr, every piece just wanted to shift in every direction, however once I started disassembly I quickly realized there’s much more going on here than just a simple 6 piece burr in a frame!
The level move count is rather high at 21.2.2.4.4.
The other thing I noticed is Alfons added an imprint of long time Brewing Company ‘Leffe’ on the end of the burr pieces so here’s a bit of historical reference that I gleaned from Wikipedia:
“The abbey of Leffe was founded in 1152 on the river Meuse in the province of Namur in southern Belgium. Like many monasteries across Europe, the Premonstratensian (Norbertine) canons of the Notre-Dame de Leffe abbey [fr] brewed ale, starting in 1240.[1] Using knowledge passed from generation to generation and ingredients found in the wild near the abbey, the canons developed a unique ale with a subtle taste and high alcohol content, brewed only at the abbey.
The abbey has been damaged by both natural and human circumstances over the years: it was destroyed by a flood in 1460, a fire swept through the settlement in 1466, billeted troops damaged the brewery in 1735, and the outbreak of the French Revolution in 1794 resulted in it being abandoned, and the brewery destroyed.[2] The canons returned in 1902.
In 1952, the production of beer was continued after a partnership with the Flemish based Lootvoet brewery in Overijse. This brewery was later bought by the international beer company Interbrew (now AB InBev). Leffe was then brewed in Mont-Saint-Guibert until Interbrew closed that brewery. Now all Leffe brands are brewed at the Stella Artois brewery in Leuven.
The 1952 agreement between the Leffe abbey and a commercial brewery is said to have been the first of its kind (royalties continue to be paid to the abbey). Today, Belgium's "abbey" beers are thriving with several beers brewed under similar licences to Leffe as well as abbey beers named after abbey ruins or abbeys that no longer exist. The Affligem beer is part of Heineken's international portfolio. Other notable abbey brands include Corsendonk.
The Leffe museum in the town of Dinant, known as Maison Leffe, is open to visitors.”
This puzzle is a lot of fun with a surprising move at the beginning, it features a 20.6 level move count so unlike most of Alfons’s burrs this one won’t torment you.
There’s 8 pieces in a frame and woods used are Zebrawood, Padauk and Nigerian Satinwood.
I originally blogged about this puzzle in 2017 and recently received a copy by Tom so thought I should update it.
Bill Cutler kindly shared this about all of these Melting Block designs:
“The original Melting Block was designed by Tom O'Beirne in the 1970's and is based on the equations:
3x3x3 = 27 and 2x2x7 = 28. If you take 27 blocks of size 19x29x44 they will nicely fit into a rectangular box 57 x 87 x 132, but 28 of these same blocks can fit into the slightly larger rectangular solid 58 x 88 x 133.
Tom constructed 8 different rectangular solids, each one made up of 1,2,4 or 8 of the basic blocks. The solution to the 3x3x3 is trivial, and the solution to the 2x2x7 is a little challenging to find.
I believe what is known as Melting Block #2 was designed by John Rausch and uses a variation of the rectangular solids that is more difficult to solve. But it is still based on the 19x29x44 block and the 3x3x3 and 2x2x7 larger boxes.
What I call Melting Block 4 is based on the equations:
3x3x7 = 63 and 4x4x4 = 64 . The basic block size is 37 x 49 x 65, and the two box sizes resulting are 147 x 195 x 259 and 148 x 196 x 260. I called it 4 because of the use of 4 cubed.
There are a lot of different block sizes that can be made from the basic block size, and a large number of possibilities for the combinations of different pieces. The surprising thing John and I found was that there are sets of these blocks in which the solutions to the two larger boxes are both unique. In fact, we identified 76 sets of blocks that have doubly-unique solutions. In can be quite challenging to find some of these solutions by hand, but it is particularly interesting because you can make use of the basic idea behind the puzzle to help in finding the solutions.
There were a couple of choices for marketing as a puzzle:
1) Pick one of the 76 double-unique designs and use this one.
2) A "multi-puzzle" that consists of one box, a bunch of pieces labelled somehow, and a list of the 76 piece combinations.
Eric didn't want to do a multi-puzzle, so we chose one of the 76 combinations to use.”
Tom’s version of JR’s New Melting Block uses Sapele for the Box with Canarywood, Chakte Vega, Yellow Narra, Pau Amarillo, Osage Orange, Purpleheart, Walnut and Mahogany, for the Pieces.
Eric’s version of JR’s New Melting Block uses Maple/Ash for the Box, with Purpleheart, Mahogany, Zebrawood, Walnut, Maple, Morado, Granadillo, and Goncalo Alves, for the Pieces.
Here’s Eric’s original description from CubicDissection where the newest variant called ‘Melting Block 4’ designed by John Rausch and Bill Cutler is currently available for purchase:
“New Melting Block by John Rausch is an improved version of Tom Obeirne's original Melting Block puzzle. This paradoxical 3-D packing puzzle has two unique assemblies, one using seven pieces and the other using all eight. There are two possible solutions for each assembly.
The seven-piece solution seems to fill the box entirely, with little room to spare. The leftover block seems far too large to fit in the box...yet somehow, impossibly, the eighth piece does fit when the second solution is discovered.
NMB is the result of an exhaustive mathematical analysis. Of all possible piece subsets and assemblies, over 33 million solutions were reduced to two possibilities. New Melting Block is far more difficult than the original Melting Block and a wonderful addition to any collection.”
I received this awesome tray packing puzzle design as a Christmas gift from Tanner!
The pieces are the initials from Tanner’s You Tube Channel ‘WDIGMI’ and I can say that it’s a very difficult solve.
I originally found one of the 25 solutions but of course it wasn’t the unique one that allows fitment of the pieces by way of the restricted openings. It took me quite a while to finally find the correct solution.
Be sure to drop by Tye’s webshop ‘Nothing Yet Designs’ to grab some of his awesome puzzles.
You’d think that after two decades in puzzling that a rather simple looking packing puzzle would be an easy solve but not so much..this one had me tripped up for a considerable amount of time!
Stephan made different versions of this puzzle and the version I have features a neat ‘clam shell’ type box with magnets to keep it closed. That type of box certainly doesn’t help in the solve as you don’t have the four sides of a conventional box to guide you.
If you ever come across this one at auction I highly recommend it, it’s definitely a tough one!
Wow this is an intense puzzle, it took me a considerable amount of time to solve this packing puzzle!
This particular design is part of the set of packing puzzles that were later added to the original set and they all can still be purchased at Akaki’s Etsy.
As you can see in the description there is a piece that features a cut that is most definitely needed for the solve:
“Foie Gras Basket is a new design published in July 2021. The diagonally notched piece allows for a satisfying movement that is almost like closing a lid on a box. Fitting the two large pieces in is hard enough, and you have two L-shaped pieces to fit after that. This puzzle requires more dexterity than the previous puzzles. I won't give it away here, but there is an hidden feature in the pieces, designed to help you in the solve, and you will understand why it is there once you get to the end of the solution. The solution takes 26 moves, and is similar in difficulty to Charcoal Basket.”
This awesome puzzle was Bob’s IPP 35 Exchange puzzle at Ottawa, Canada in 2015.
Here’s Bob’s description:
‘A Puzzle from the 4th Dimension’
“The 24-cell, or octaplex, is one of the six convex regular four-dimensional polytopes, analogs of the five Platonic solids. OCTAPLEX I is a perspective projection of an octaplex into three dimensions, dissected into five pieces made from the octahedral unit cells.
Goal: Assemble an octaplex.
Extra: Arrange the pieces in sequence so that each step either adds or moves exactly one octahedral cell. (Note: the cell shape can change as it moves.)”
I was surprised by this puzzle when it arrived, after looking it up online I found Martin Warren’s Blog and was convinced it was a variant of a Kveik or Yeast Ring that was used for centuries in the fermentation of beer..however after reading Brian’s description at Mr Puzzle I’m not so sure, it’s puzzling indeed!
Brian created this puzzle using 52 pieces of Pine:
“A Wotsit is another type of puzzle (What is it? an obscure item not easily recognisable for what they do or are). First, you need to work out what it does, or what it might be used for.
As well as a Wotsit this one’s also an Impossible Object. Can you work out how the item is put together? No glue at all was used in the construction. And yes, in this case, it does mean the item will not come apart without breaking it.
While making the puzzle Brian came up with a neat idea to see if he could make a Mobius loop out of the pieces. He did this by adding a few extra pieces to allow the twist. Not sure if this has been done before.
With more fiddling and imagination he realised that if you work certain pieces at a time in a clockwise motion you can roll the puzzle around over itself and use it as a fidget toy. This has to be done very carefully so you don’t break the small pieces of wood.
One piece is branded with Mr Puzzle’s logo and that makes the rolling action more obvious. Brian noticed this because he kept trying to put the brand in the same spot but it kept moving on him; he eventually understood what was happening.
Brian has always been interested in Wotsits and first saw this one in 2003 in the collection of Saul Bobroff; a man known for designing and collecting impossible objects. He came back and decided to make some of these; started (actually he only got to cutting the pieces of wood to length!) but never got around to completing the project. A couple of years after that at IPP25 there was a Wotsit competition that Brian won and the prize was one of these; hence his original project was shelved. He found the buckets of blocks in a big shed clean out recently and thought he should use them so others could have a copy of this very interesting object.
To our best knowledge, the puzzle was whittled with a pen knife (this version is individually saw cut and routed, not laser cut) and sold as tramp art in the USA during The Great Depression but it was made in Europe much earlier.
With google it’s not really that hard to figure out what the item is but it’s still quite the conversation piece and a pretty interesting addition to add to a barenalia collection.
Size: Outside diameter 150mm. Height 50mm.
The puzzle is hand machined here at Mr Puzzle, not whittled or laser cut. It is not painted. It is made of raw pine. The original would have been made this way.”
When I first noticed this cool puzzle on Alfons’ FB page I asked for one, of course you can imagine with an unbelievably high move count of 391 it might take me a while to open it!
As you can see by the pics it’s more of a puzzle box with an intricate maze that needs to be followed to ultimately open the top.
Here’s a brief description from Alfons:
“6 Pieces and a frame for the puzzle box "AlKen 3" to remove the lid it takes 391 movements (the lid is the only piece that can be removed).
Wood: Padauk and beech”
I recently received these two outstanding Burr designs by Dan and really the pics do not do them justice.
Dan spent a considerable amount of time getting the effects just right and I can tell you he definitely didn’t charge enough for these!
I’m a big horror genre fan so when he first mentioned these I knew I had to get them, the fit and tolerances are spot on..great work Dan.
Here’s ‘Michael Myers’
Here’s ‘Freddy Krueger’
This very cool burr is still available so I strongly recommend you drop by Pluredro and pick up a copy:
“As the name suggests, this puzzle is very similar to one of our earlier product, Stretchy 12. Actually, the puzzle assembly shape is the same as "Stretch-12", only the orientation of the 2x2 and 3x1 pieces is different. In Stretchy 12, three 2x2 pieces intersect at two corners; in Pseudo Stretchy 12, three 3x1 pieces intersect at two corners.
This difficult puzzle requires 15 moves to remove the first piece from the assembled shape and another 5 moves to remove the second piece. After Juno had finished making all checkouts on the 2x2 pieces, he realized that the puzzle had a shortcut solution involving rotational movement. He then made a simple modification on a couple of pieces to eliminate the shortcut.
The flat 3x1 pieces are made of our original plywood, as always. This time, we chose Satin Sycamore and Sassafras for the plywood. The 2x2 piece is made of PNG Rosewood, one of Juno's favorite wood species.
The puzzle is sold assembled. The solution to this puzzle will be supplied upon request by Burr Tools file format.”
Size: 74 mm x 74 mm x 74 mm
Number of pieces: 12
Material: Satin Sycamore, Sassafras, and PNG Rosewood
This is another gem of a burr from the master, unfortunately these are now sold out, here’s the description from Pluredro:
“This puzzle was produced at the same time as Pseudo Stretcher 12. Although it takes a relatively small number, only six moves to remove the first piece from the assembled shape, Juno thought this puzzle should be added to the series of 12-piece Burr puzzles that consist of six 2x2 pieces and six 3x1 pieces.
Since the pieces of this puzzle do not interlock very well, the maximum number of moves will probably remain in the single digits even if Juno continues to search for higher move configurations, so he chose one of the level-6 pieces selection that can give better workability and lesser internal voids.
Assembling a puzzle without any clues is still quite difficult. In fact, many 12-piece burr puzzles are difficult even if those have a level 1, single-move solution, so please do not be embarrassed if you cannot solve them.
The puzzle is sold assembled. The solution to this puzzle will be supplied upon request by Burr Tools file format.”
Size: 74 mm x 74 mm x 74 mm
Number of pieces: 12
Material: Satin Sycamore, Sassafras, and PNG Rosewood
I gleaned this info from ‘Age of Puzzles’ by Serhiy Grabarchuk:
“Harry Lewis Nelson is a mathematician, computer programmer and expert, math editor, and devoted puzzle inventor. Nelson earned his degrees in mathematics from Harvard (1953) and the University of Kansas (1957). For 30 years, since 1960 until 1991, he worked with supercomputers at the Lawrence Radiation Laboratory / Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) in Livermore, California.”
This is one of many puzzles designed by Harry, here’s a brief description of Gravity Well:
“It is a nice (though difficult) take-apart puzzle. Your goal is to disassemble the whole shape into three rings and a core, and then to reassemble the shape.”
The information sheet that accompanies this puzzle shows three different challenges for this cool puzzle.
This PuzzleBox dates back to a time when Bits & Pieces offered some very nicely made puzzles at quite reasonable prices in fact I’m sure that’s probably why they never could sustain that business model.
This particular PuzzleBox features the founder of the Karakuri Group Akio Kamei’s trademark opening solve. It is beautifully crafted with flawless movements and superb craftsmanship.
I must admit that my solving skills with any type of ‘coin release’ type of puzzle is shoddy at best..this one has me completely stumped!
It appears to only have one move then nothing else moves or rattles..here’s where Rik drew inspiration for this puzzle:
“The design of this puzzle has been inspired by a puzzle called ’Psycho Match-box’
in ‘Puzzles Old and New’ by Prof. Hoffmann.”
This was an exchange gift from Rik at IPP 21 in Tokyo, Japan
