Circles and Squares by Tom Lensch

This type of puzzle is one that I remember playing with as a kid, of course they were usually plastic, purchased at the local convenience store.  IPP founder Jerry Slocum wrote a comprehensive book about this venerable puzzle.  Puzzlemaster has copies available.

As you can see from Tom’s description below, he made a really slick dual sided variant using Circles & Squares to ramp up the difficulty level, the sliding of the pieces are so smooth and the puzzle is a lot of fun instantly bringing me back to those childhood days..

“C&S is a two sided puzzle and you will see that it is in the format of the traditional 15 puzzle which I am sure most of you have. 

Solving the squares on one side mixes up the circles on the other side, and vice versa.  Your problem is, where to start. As you can see in the photos there is no indication of which piece will go in a corner for a starting point as is in the 15 puzzle where number 1 goes in the upper left corner.”

Tom made my version with a Walnut (Mahogany Dark or Light were also available) frame with laser inscribed ‘circles’ on one side with ‘squares’ on the other.

6T - Ken Irvine by Tom Lensch

I wasn’t aware of this puzzle until I noticed that ‘ZenPuzzler’ blogged about his 3D printed copy in 2021, of course my copy was beautifully made by Tom.

Here’s the blog in its entirety:

Shhhh! She Just Turned – 6T

“Someone just turned 60!  But I promised my young (very young) wife that I wouldn’t say who it was.  Over the years, as other distinguished family members received puzzles, 7T, 8T+, and 9T to commemorate significant milestones, she patiently waited to be bestowed the honor of yet another milestone puzzle.  This year, I developed a 6T puzzle for her - for no specific reason.  As my wife unwrapped her presents for yet another 29th birthday, she was delighted to finally receive her own milestone puzzle.

It may come as a surprise, but the 6T puzzle is comprised of 6 T-shaped pieces that have to be packed within a 3x3x3 box.  The puzzle was 3D printed with each of the Ts in a different color and an open-top silver box with 6T debossed on the side.  Immediately, you know there is some funny business going on if you are required to pack 6 Ts made with 5 cubes (that’s 30 altogether) into a box that can accommodate 27 cubes.  It quickly becomes obvious that the triangular half-cubes of the pieces have to be leveraged to jam those Ts together.

Although practically a kid, my wife has been around puzzles for a long time and knows a thing or two about solving them.  She tackled the puzzle and quickly demonstrated that the experience that comes with youth could be used to solve this puzzle in less than 30 minutes.  She was very happy to discover that this was not one of those intractable designs (avoid celebrating 80!).

I should mention that Dr. Volker Latussek had designed a Six-T-Puzzle that was made by Rombol, but I don’t believe that it is currently being made.  This puzzle was previously mentioned in the post, Puzzle-A-Month Challenge.”

Free The Washer by Phil Wigfield

I normally don’t collect metal puzzles in fact my main focus is Juno & Alfons Eyckmans puzzles but Phil’s work is so special that I feel I need to make an exception.  As you can imagine turning these puzzles on the lathe is a very time consuming endeavour so Phil had started on this puzzle run last year so I was excited to see his most recent offering.  The Brass with Stainless Steel combination is awesome, if you decide to grab a copy I promise you won’t be disappointed, Phil’s work is spectacular! 

 Here’s Phil’s description:

“The aim is to  uncover the inner core from the outer core. To pre-empt the question; no – it is not a Revomaze so to speak. Currently there is no limit of the batch size that I will be making; in the sense that it is not a limited edition.

For me personally, the puzzle is very much about the machining side in the sense that I really wanted to push myself and achieve very tight tolerances of which nowadays people would run straight to a CNC machine instead of using any sort of manual lathe. Only once the puzzle is solved that the machining can be appreciated.”

Phil’s pic of a facing cut on his lathe

William Strijbos' First Box

Allard has an excellent blog review from 2012 that pretty much sums up everything you need to know about this awesome first puzzle box design by William.

Here’s an excerpt:

“OK, so you have a seemingly impenetrable blue anodised box – you can see the lid has a little bit of play in it – there’s one obvious thing to try, so you do, and that’s not spectacularly useful, so you think for a while and explore a few more avenues before finding what one might loosely call “some tools”. Trying out various things with the tools you’ve discovered leads to some further discoveries – among them that sometimes the lid of the box feels a bit looser, sometimes there is a pin across that hole in the base, and sometimes there’s a pin across another hole.

Wil’s helpfully told us in his email that there are no magnets and that no bashing is required – yet I suspect that most folks will be tempted to try that, if only a little every now and then…

During the course of your explorations you can start piecing together some of what must be going on inside there – part of the clues come from the sounds inside when you tilt the box this way and that – but the confusing thing is that those sounds don’t always appear to behave the same way! [Pixies!]”

Macaron TIC - Laszlo Molnar by BAZ

This wild Turning Interlocking Cube (4x4x3) design by Laszlo is quite mesmerizing and very difficult.  There’s only 5 pieces, however the incredible dance that is necessary to assemble the two larger pieces is unbelievably complex.  I solved it a couple of times and from one time to the next I couldn’t remember the sequence and struggled mightily!

Jeff made a run of these back in 2021 (along with several other in this ‘Bakery’) designs by the incredibly talented puzzle designer Laszlo Molnar.  Unfortunately as Jeff set out to make a run of these puzzles he ran into a myriad of Shop issues that halted the completion of this project.  I was thankful that I was given the opportunity to offer the remaining puzzles from this run in Puzzle Paradise.

Other designs in these ‘Bakery’ TIC’s included; Cookie, Scone, Muffin, Cake and Baklava.

Juno’s 6BB Oddly Extended Version #02

This 2nd version of Juno’s Oddly Extended series is not only a much higher level than the first version but is spectacular with the use of the Ironbark and Damar Minyak woods!

Please be sure to drop by Pluredro to puruse his puzzle offerings.

Here’s Juno’s description:

“The puzzle has a unique level 28-9-3-1-2 solution, far beyond version #01. There are some obstacles to designing higher-level burr puzzles. Higher-level burrs often require larger internal voids to allow the consisting pieces to move, but larger internal voids are likely to result in multiple, fewer numbers of moving solutions, making it difficult to provide a unique solution. Large internal voids can also cause consisting pieces to rotate. To overcome the above issues, Juno had an odd (sneaky?) modification to one of the pieces of this puzzle and It can be seen in one of the images below.

As we did on Crooked 6 Board Burr #2, twelve magnets were added to stabilize the puzzle. The polarity of those magnets also provides clues as to which pieces should be paired with which pieces. When we produced version #01, Juno made a simple miscalculation and made the puzzle significantly larger than originally planned. Version #02 is smaller and lighter, so even with additional work to add magnets, we could reduce the production cost of this puzzle.

Our original plywood, made of Ironbark and Damar Minyak is used for the puzzle. Ironbark is very hard and dense, but a bit brittle, so the work was quite difficult. Please understand that there may be very small hairline cracks, which should not affect the construction of the puzzle, on the end of the outer layer of the plywood. We have sacrificed a lot of timber but it was not plausible for us to eliminate half the amount of the timber stock. The pieces with significant defects were used for the 2nd-grade puzzles, but not for the regular products.

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

Size: 96 mm x 96 mm x 96 mm

Number of pieces: 6

Material: Ironbark and Damar Minyak

Juno’s Grooved 6 Board Burr #7

After several years now Juno has released his seventh version of his popular Grooved Board Burr series.

Of course I just had to have the Pine version that was auctioned off prior to the sales copies going live.

Be sure to drop by Pluredro to grab yourself a copy, here’s Juno’s description:

“The puzzle has a unique solution in a relatively small number of 91 assemblies, and the computer program Burr Tools showed its level to be 50-18-3-3, the highest number in the Grooved 6 Board Burr series. In the real world, the interlocking of the consisting pieces becomes unstable after around 40 moves from the assembled shape, and it allows a rotational movement shortcut that is theoretically possible. It is yet the largest number ever in the series to release the first piece from the assembled shape.

The size of the puzzle is larger than its ancestors, and the puzzle pieces have the most complex shape in the series. Many pins and grooves have been added to eliminate the possibility of unwanted shortcut solutions. In most cases, we remove sharp edges from the puzzle pieces of our product, but in contrast, it increases the likelihood that the pieces will rotate. We remove the sharp edges of the puzzle pieces on most occasions but in contrast, it can give more chance of rotational movements of the pieces. Rather than saying "only theoretically possible movements are allowed", we decided to add pins and grooves to prevent such unwanted movements.

The difficulty of the puzzle is extremely high, so don't be shy and look at the image below for a hint. You would be proud if you could take apart and reassemble the puzzle without computer aids.

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

Size: 89 mm x 89 mm x 89 mm

Number of pieces: 6

Material: PNG Rosewood and Red Gum

Extreme Boxed Burr - Frans de Vreugd by Steve Strickland at Puzzlecraft

This is a very nicely made puzzle by Steve.  Frans was able to design what is essentially a 4-Piece burr into a seriously difficult solve by adding a box.

Steve’s unique puzzling pursuit is well documented in this Woodworkers Journal article.  I actually first got into puzzlemaking shortly after this period and can certainly understand Steve’s plight.

Pieces of Eight - Stewart Coffin Design #77 by Wayne Daniel

 

I was fortunate to have acquired this awesome puzzle crafted by the  legendary Wayne Daniel!

This is a classic design by Stewart and sadly overlooked by craftsmen, although  Eric Fuller (RIP) did make a run of them in 2007.

Here’s what Eric wrote:

“This is another puzzle I have always wanted to have a copy of. When I first started collecting, I was not a woodworker and had no way to make myself a copy. I never could find a copy of the "Pieces of Eight" puzzle for sale, and now I know why. It's *really* difficult and time consuming to make. Pick one up while you can, because I am never making these again!”

Here’s what Stewart wrote:

“The eight dissimilar pieces of Pieces-of-Eight plug into each other to construct a cube and many other shapes.

One need not be a puzzle expert to enjoy this one. The pieces are fun to just play around with, and I thought they might have educational potential as well. I had hoped that it would be licensed for manufacture but that never happened, at least not yet. In the modified version shown in the photo, two extra half-pieces have been added to fill the square tray and enable additional constructions.”

Tenchi - Frederic Boucher by Eric Fuller (RIP)

For some reason this cool design alluded my grasp since it first became available at Cubicdissection but I now have it and it certainly didn’t disappoint.

The craftsmanship is the usual high standard that Eric achieved with every puzzle and with Frederic’s cunning design skills, this one’s a keeper for sure!

Here’s Eric’s original description at Cubicdissection:

https://cubicdissection.com

“Tenchi is a brilliant anti-gravity packing puzzle named after a Japanese word that translates to both "Sky" and "Land," the goal is to pack the pieces into the frame so that the puzzle can be lifted and rotated without any part falling out.

There are over four thousand possible assemblies, but only one unique assembly locks the pieces. While challenging, Tenchi is not impossible; analysis and experimentation provide enough insight that you may find the solution using critical thought.

We used nine different exotic woods for the individually beveled pieces (Ash, Wenge, Canary, Rosewood, Birdseye Maple, Purpleheart, Paduak, Goncalo Alves and Marblewood). The frame is solid Cherry reinforced by half-lap joints concealed by the angled corners. Fit is precise, with just a bit of room to account for dry shop conditions.

80 copies are available. Each puzzle is signed and dated. Tenchi ships assembled in an unsolved configuration.”

One Line by Naoyuki Iwase - Osho

I initially mistook this awesome tray puzzle for a sliding piece design similar to the classic ‘15 puzzle’ but as it turns out the goal is to place the pieces in the tray to make a complete line.  

Osho was very kind in his reply to my query about the goal and also told me this:

“Please complete one line by putting 7 pieces in the frame.

If one piece is missing, please use the lines on the backing paper.

You can play 8 questions.”

As you can see in the photo there is a paper printout of an alternate set of pieces that can be used to accomplish the other 8 challenges using all eight pieces..very cool design!

3D Onat Contrast - Stephan Baumegger by Pelikan

This high level burr is unmistakable as one of Stephan’s creations, it features a level move count of 37.10.4.1.1.2.2.1.1.2!

It’s safe to assume that you’ll need a burrtools file to reassemble this behemoth.

This particular copy was made by Pelikan for Puzzlemaster and is still available.

Covalent by Tamas Vanyo - 2015

This is a very cool 8 piece puzzle by Tamas, it’s appearance immediately conjures up a burr puzzle in chains and after looking up the meaning of Covalent: ‘The interatomic linkage that results from the sharing of an electron pair between two atoms.’

I was of surprised to see such a lengthy solve level of 3.2.5.11.3.3.2!

This particular copy was handcrafted by Tamas (2022) while sale copies were made by Pelikan.

Bolt Action by Alan Lunsford

Here’s Zen Puzzler’s blog review here:

“My break from blogging has been rather rudely interrupted with the arrival of Alan Lunsford’s new sequential discovery puzzle, Bolt Action.  It is reminiscent of Alan’s prior sequential discovery puzzle, Unsafe Deposit (Hiding Money in Puzzles - Unsafe Deposit).  Like Unsafe Deposit, Bolt Action is a cube with a US quarter peeking out a window, various holes and slots in the cube, and a bolt screwed into one of the sides.  The new cube is gray with the name of the puzzle embossed in Black.  In one of the square openings, you can see the end of a long bolt wobbling about, but it’s secured on the other end.

Being in the US, I received the puzzle with a quarter inside instead of one of Alan’s own printed coins.  For worldwide distribution outside the US, Alan decided to print his own currency.  As of this writing, the Lunsford is worth about 25 US cents.

The puzzle arrives with a card specifying the goal to remove the coin and find a reason to smile.  What does that mean?  Doesn’t everyone smile when the coin is released?  All I can say is that you will know when you are not done and then when you are.  

After seeing various comments about Bolt Action, I expected it to be a similar experience to Unsafe Deposit.  I expected to knock this one out quickly and decided to keep track of the solve time since Unsafe Deposit was so quick.  

After 20 minutes, I hadn’t gotten anywhere.  I knew exactly how the quarter would be released, but I didn’t have the tools to accomplish it.  Another 20 didn’t give me anything more.  I was pretty sure that I had done just about everything that one could do to this cube and still hadn’t made any progress.  To be honest, after 40 minutes, I was pushing the “No excessive force” rule since I was out of other options.  Tap, tap, tap, spin, spin, band, Bang, BANG!

After an hour, I had to step back and reevaluate the situation.  My options were: 1) I got really lucky on all of Alan’s previous SD puzzles and was now faced with having to really solve one the right way, 2) My mental facilities have started to decay during the quarantine, 3) Something was wrong with the puzzle.  Although all three were just as probable, I opted to pursue #3.  Just after the hour mark, I went out into the garage to look for the box that BA came in.  I shook it and was rewarded with something rattling in the box.  Sure enough, there was a bolt sitting on the bottom under the filler paper.

During that first hour, that empty space that I kept opening (many times), attempting to discern its purpose, was for the missing bolt.  Armed with the missing bolt, the coin was removed and the reason to smile was discovered in 5 minutes.

Am I bothered by the fact that I spent an hour trying to solve an unsolvable cube?  Not really.  I enjoyed spending time thinking about how the puzzle worked.  It’s clever and very well made.  And yes, it’s very much on the order of difficulty as Unsafe Deposit.”

Cover Up - George Sicherman by Brian Menold at Wood Wonders

Here’s Brian’s description from Wood Wonders 

“George Sicherman is great at coming up with these little easy to make and fun to play with challenges. Similar to his "Hide The Gold", the idea here is to hide the "T" shaped piece with the other four pieces. Except this time you may use the surface that it sits on. I have seen a few of my testers solve this very quickly but then were unable to do so just a day later. Just lucky perhaps?”

Bitcoin Maze 1 by Robrecht Louage and Michel van Ipenburg

Here’s Gabriel’s review from his blog from a year ago:

“It's been almost seven years since I've reviewed a puzzle from Robrecht Louage. At the time, the 8 Stars Labyrinth was yet another great design that I had the pleasure to play with. Fast-forward seven years, and this time, Robrecht presents us with not only one puzzle, but six. This is the Bitcoin Maze, and it's already one of my favorites.

The first design (Bitcoin Maze #1) was entered at the 2021 Puzzle Design Competition. Trespa is Robrecht's material of choice for his puzzles, which has a solid feel in the hands unlike laser-cut wood, not to mention that the white appearance looks stunning. Michel van Ipenburg, who has collaborated in the past with Robrecht when they made Larva and Ladybird, came up with the idea for a series of six puzzles, and what an idea! Each puzzle feels different, and that's expected, since each one provides a different internal maze. #1 is supposed to be the easiest, while #6 is the hardest... In theory.

The goal of the puzzle is simple... There's a coin (a Bitcoin at that! - First time I held one in my hands) placed in a sliding platform enclosed within a frame with a labyrinth. Inside, however, there's a steel ball (or more than one) that's preventing the platform to go all the way out of the frame. Your task is to completely remove the coin from the puzzle. There's a position which looks like it's out, but you still can't remove the coin, so it needs just a bit more effort. The coin needs to be out of the puzzle.

The funny thing is, design #1 felt more difficult than #6. I started with #1, since I was told it was the easiest, but just couldn't solve it completely. The coin was at that position mentioned above, where it's almost out, but not quite. For a change of pace, I picked up #6 and to my surprise, I solved it within 5 minutes. Luck, perhaps? I kept trying with #1, but wasn't having much luck. It took me more than a hour fidgeting with it, trying to figure out the internal mechanism to finally remove the coin. I still haven't solved it a second time, but this is what makes these puzzles so good. You can try to solve them multiple times until it becomes second nature.

Difficulty may be relative when it comes to hidden mechanism puzzles. You can't see what's going on inside, after all. You have to rely on your other senses, and sometimes you may solve it quickly or more slowly. Either way, you get to feel like a safe cracker and that's what these puzzles give you. A wonderful experience like no other type of puzzle.”

“The object of this puzzle seems easy enough.  Just remove the large and shiny "bitcoin".  There are metal balls that will stop you from getting the coin out.   Maneuver your way through the hidden maze in order to solve the puzzle.  Then you must work in reverse to restore the coin to the beginning.  A really attractive coffee table puzzle that is great to play around with!  It is is made out of Trespa which is a pressed wood material.”

PLD Box by Jean Claude Constantin

I thought it best to just drop Gabriel’s Blog Review (2016) here instead of me rambling on about it:

“Fans of labyrinths and puzzle boxes have a reason to love Jean Claude Constantin's new puzzle, the PLD Box (also known as Laby Box), since it combines these two distinct concepts perfectly into a brilliant and unique puzzle.

As you know, a puzzle box has a hidden mechanism or some other locking device that needs to be deciphered in order to open it. However, this box is a little different, because the locking mechanism can be seen. It's a labyrinth, but don't think it's easier than any other puzzle box. In order to open this box you have to solve the labyrinth and remove its acrylic cover.

I was pleasantly surprised with the quality and overall design of this puzzle. It is quite big and sturdy, measuring 12.5cm x 9.7cm x 6.5cm. The body of the box is made of this lighter shade of wood, almost the same color as bamboo, but I'm not sure exactly what type of wood it is. The top of the box is decorated with a geometric maze consisting of two sliding plates that move in opposite directions. The goal is to navigate the two mazes by moving the six pins up and down while pulling on the plates back and forth. Only one of the plates can be removed, as you can see by carefully analyzing the mazes. Only one of the mazes is actually linked as one continuous path. The other maze is separated into three different path that are not linked together.

The pins can't move independently from each other. They move in pairs vertically, so you have to solve both mazes simultaneously, always planning your moves strategically. With each move you'll have to move some pins up, others down, or you won't be able to slide the plate out of the box.

The difficulty level of this puzzle is very high, because of the high number of moves involved in the solution. To remove the cover you have to repeat many of the movements, as if you were following a logic sequence. Once you understand the logic behind the maze, you'll solve the puzzle in no time.

Closing Comments:

The PLD Box by Constantin is one of his best puzzle box designs. The combination of two different concepts works flawlessly and solving one will be a great accomplishment accompanied by a rewarding feeling.”