Sunrise-Sunset - Stewart Coffin Design #181 by John Devost

When I first made a few copies of this design, I didn’t realize that it was a precursor to  a couple of other tray designs, namely ‘Castle’ and ‘Vanishing Trunk’.  

These five simple pieces can be used to make many other shapes, there’s a unique solution to both the 4x6 rectangle and 5x5 square (with the centre voxel vacant).

I thought I’d make myself a copy using some choice Purpleheart, Padauk, Yellowheart, Black Palm and Bocote.

The tray for the 4x6 is made from Padauk with Black Limba Bottom and Holly Slipfeathers.  The Sleeve is Black Limba with Wenge Slipfeathers.

The tray for the 5x5 is made from Black Limba with Wenge/Peruvian Walnut Slipfeathers.

Here’s Stewart’s description:

“This puzzle started out as just five colorful polyomino pieces that fit into a 4x6 rectangular tray one way only, but it evolved over the years into a version with a two-sided tray that is square on the other side.”

3-in-1 Tray Puzzle Set - Goh Pit Khiam by Tom Lensch

I acquired this awesome tray set from a fellow puzzler.  Obviously your task is to fit each of the five pieces into the tray, however it wasn’t until I had the puzzle in hand that I realized the unique way the tray is made.  There’s much more here than simply placing the pieces inside the tray, you definitely need to plan out your attack.

Once you start placing the pieces in and then shunting them around it quickly becomes a merry go round of futility!

Each set of pieces are made from the same wood type, Walnut, Cherry and Maple.

As always Tom’s craftsmanship is ‘top notch’ and Pit’s designs always have a devious twist to them!

Jigsaw Cube 2 - Arrow - KW-33-6 by Hideaki Kawashima

Hideaki is my favourite craftsman from the Karakuri Creation Group and I just couldn’t pass on this masterpiece!

The amount of work that is required for this amazing puzzlebox is simply astounding, if you follow Hideaki’s Instagram you’ll get sneak peeks at most (if not all) of the various steps along the way for his puzzlebox creations.  I’m astonished by not only the woodworking techniques used but the multiple steps multiplied by amounts required for each release.

The movements on this beautiful PuzzleBox are stunning and I’m amazed at how it works flawlessly, once open there are four compartments that each have their own lids.

Here’s a description from Hideaki’s at his KCG page:

“I improved the design of Jigsaw Cube 2, which I presented in 2017.

The previous version was decorated with collapsed hexagons, but the change to an arrow shape has increased the appeal of the piece.

However, with this change, the number of bevels and the difficulty to work with increased dramatically.

In the 15 years since I started making karakuri boxes, I have mobilized all the skills, knowledge and tools I have acquired to produce this piece.

Some changes have also been made to the internal structure.

The puzzle is not difficult. Please enjoy the fluid movement.”

Shape Shift - Stewart Coffin Design #204 by John Devost

I decided I should make myself a copy of this cool design.  I’ve only ever seen pics of Tom Lensch’s 4-colour version.  I thought I’d make my copy with both the 3-colour and 4-colour variant along with a 2x3x4 Box and a 4x6 Tray.

Here’s Stewart’s description:

“Five multi-colored solid polyominoes come assembled in a 4x6 tray, and the problem is to rearrange them so that no two like colors are next to each other, and also with color symmetry. A second 4x6 arrangement exists and also a unique 3x8 arrangement, but neither satisfies the requirements of symmetry. 

The solution is to pack them in the unique 2x3x4 solid arrangement. There are two different versions of this puzzle: three-color and four-color.”

Box and Sleeve is Leopardwood with Black Limba Top & Bottom and Wenge Slipfeathers.

Piece wood variety for the 4-colour version are Purpleheart, Yellowheart, Redheart and Black Palm.

Tray is Padauk with Holly Slipfeathers and a Black Limba Sleeve (removable) and Bottom.

Piece wood variety for the 3-colour version are Yellowheart, Bloodwood and Black Palm.

Bison - Jack Krijnen by Pelikan

 

This awesome Bison Puzzle was originally designed and made by Jack.  Here’s an excerpt from Steve’s Blog with a quote from Jack:

“Gwenn Rigal contacted me in April 2021 and asked me to participate in his Cave Art Chest Project. He wanted an apothecary chest with 6 boxes, all dedicated to a specific cave and the paleolithic cave art in it. The other participants were Michael Toulouzas, Stephan Baumegger, Kelly Snake, Tracy Wood Clemons and Tomasz Gawronski. Nicholas Phillips would make the chest itself. My contribution should have the Tuc d'Audoubert cave as theme. It is located in the south of France. The masterpieces of this cave are two clay bisons, the best preserved examples of clay modellings in the whole European cave art. They are 15,000 years old, and have become iconic. The bisons should have a central place in the SD-box for the project.”

This copy was beautifully crafted by Pelikan.

Kevin Sadler wrote about it:

“A first look at this puzzle leaves you absolutely stunned – it is breathtakingly realistic! The intricacy of the design and manufacture is incredible. I am amazed that this can be produced in any numbers and indeed, Jakub did tell me that it was very difficult to produce. Jack Krijnen designs some wonderful puzzles and this year he produced a very small run of these Bison puzzles and then allowed Pelikan to make some more. This is a new category for me. Kumike is a very old Japanese tradition but not so,etching I've ever played with before (apart from very simple plastic puzzles as a child). It is not a terribly difficult challenge but is an absolute delight to look at, hold and to dismantle. There is a nice surprise inside. Whilst not hard to do, there is something compulsive about it and I keep dismantling and reassembling it with a big smile on my face. It is not suitable for young children or clumsy people as the interlocking sections are quite thin and could be broken if inadequate care was taken.”

I made a Box from Black Limba with Holly Slipfeathers and a Padauk Sleeve.

44 Piece Packing Puzzle - David Klarner by John Devost

I only made one of these puzzles and it was my inspiration for David Singmaster’s 25 Piece Packing Puzzle that became my first puzzle offering on CubicDissection.

According to David Singmaster this design was conceived after he was discussing with David Klarner about the least amount of pieces in a ‘brick packing’ design.

There are 4 distinct solutions to this behemoth!

This particular puzzle was made over 20 years ago and remains in my wife’s personal collection!

I just recently decided to add a Box with Lid crafted from Leopardwood with Wenge Slipfeathers.  Pieces are Walnut with a Cherry Sleeve.

The Skull Puzzle - DaveMakesStuff - printed by Ivan Danik

It didn’t take me long to purchase this cool puzzle from Ivan’s Etsy Shop as it has the Halloween colour and theme.

It features 6 pieces that serially interlock so even though it’s not difficult to assemble it does require some planned assembly!

The design is by David Sweet - DaveMakesStuff

Here’s Ivan’s description:

“The Skull puzzle is based on a classic 6 piece puzzle. The goal of the puzzle is to take it apart and to assemble it again. Any person despite of the level of experience in solving puzzles will be able to take it apart and assemble again.”

Jack in the Box - Rod Bogart by Craighill

I noticed this puzzle when it first appeared on the kickstarter campaign but never did purchase a copy, I did finally acquire one and was pleasantly surprised by both its design by Rod and its high quality build by Craighill.

Here’s the description with links to the Kickstarter video and Art of Play’s website:

“The Jack In The Box is a packing puzzle with a hidden secret that’s either revealed or concealed — depending on how you put it together. It has two equally correct solutions: one which boasts a proud place on its own little pedestal, and another that makes that very pedestal disappear within itself — with seemingly no change to its size.

Designed by esteemed puzzle master Rod Bogart, and originally brought to life with the help of Craighill and Art of Play’s incredible Kickstarter community, the Jack In The Box Puzzle is now available to captivate and perplex the wider public.”

Box is Black Limba with Leopardwood Top/Bottom/Sleeve and Maple Slipfeathers.

Cogas by Garrett Mathias at Mojo

 

I don’t collect metal puzzles although when I have acquired them occasionally in the past they always impress me and this one is particularly amazing!

It has a tactile feel and the solve is very cool and ingenious!

Here’s the description from Garrett:

“The Cogas Puzzle is a machined puzzle made of brass and aluminum(plus a few other metal components). Measuring almost 3 inches tall and almost 1.5 inches in diameter.

The Inspiration:

I wanted to create a puzzle that could potentially be useful. In other words, a puzzle that you can put things in. In this case it would be small things. When I started designing this puzzle I wanted it to resemble a medicine bottle to pay homage to one of the greatest accidental puzzles of all time.”

Box Top & Bottom are Padauk with Holly Slipfeathers and Oak Sleeve

Brick Wall - Lucie Pauwels by Pelikan

I recently acquired this cool puzzle from a fellow collector, it’s a ‘put-together’ type puzzle with room underneath to store the pieces.

I’ve previously seen similar tray designs by Alfons Eyckmans and this particular one by Lucie is quite difficult.  

My plan of attack for solving these is a process of elimination by placing the oddest shaped pieces first then filling in the rest, however that’s still a tricky endeavour with this one.

I was surprised by the overall size of this puzzle by Pelikan and it’s cleverly made so that you need to flip the pieces out once you hit a dead end!

Kevin Sadler wrote about it:

“I have been watching Lucie Pauwels’ designs with great interest over the years. She seems to create them in her head using simple home-made blocks and always manages to produce puzzles that are very different to those of the other designers out there today. There does not seem to be a computer used in the design process and this means that the puzzles that she creates are human solvable and require proper thought and logic to do so. The Brick wall is a chunky puzzle (20.5x15x3cm) made from a gorgeous vibrant Bubinga and Maple. The reverse side of the puzzle is a tray which holds the pieces (Maple) which are to be the grout in the tiled wall. There are 11 differently shaped pieces of grout which need to be assembled inside the wall. The premise is very simple but the actual solution is not. I started as I always do with a random insertion of pieces in positions that looked good. With Lucie’s puzzles, this approach really doesn’t tend to work well and it ended for me several times with an almost, but not good enough assembly: After a whole 2 days of failure, I decide that it was time to think© and use some logic. The pieces are shaped in such a way that there can be only one solution and the best way to go about it is to restrict the positioning of a certain few pieces from the very beginning. Once that has been done, the sequence for insertion is really pretty logical – there is a little trial and error where a piece has a little vertical symmetry but it only requires a quick test to see which way around it goes to allow other pieces in. Despite the fact that this looks like an impossible trial and error challenge, believe me, it is not. Like most of Lucie’s puzzles, this is a test of logic which you will really enjoy once you have decided to go that path. It will also look absolutely gorgeous on display.”

I decided to make a box to keep this puzzle in out of Black Limba with a Red Zenrawood Sleeve and Wenge Slipfeathers.

The Lambada Cube - Harold Cataquet by Wayne Daniel

I was fortunate to have acquired this awesome puzzle and it’s of course incredibly well made by Wayne at Interlocking Puzzles.

Here’s an excerpt from Harold’s pamphlet that accompanied this puzzle:

“For this year's exchange, I decided to make a 3D version of my exchange puzzle for IPP #16. 

At the outset, you have five puzzles to solve: 3x3x4, 3x3×6, 3×4×4, 3×4×5, and 4x4×4. The 3x3x6 box has two solutions; the others solutions are unique. However, in playing with the pieces, I found many more shapes were possible, and these offered greater challenges. For example, take the 3x3x4 box and add one cube at each corner of one of the 3×4 faces. You now have what I call the toy box. This too has a unique solution.

Finally, a few thanks. As always, thanks to Bill Cutler for his BCPBOX program. It was invaluable in helping me design and solve "The Lambada Cube". 

Thanks also to Trevor Wood for his comments on an earlier version of "The Lambada Cube". And, lastly, a special thanks to Wayne Daniel and all the great people at "Interlocking Puzzles". 

I am sure that you will agree that they did a wonderful job in producing "The Lambada Cube". In fact, in looking at the sample cube they sent me, it dawned on me that there was another tetracube that I could have used in my analysis: the planar L-shape. I had a great panic that this tetracube would have been a better choice (in that it would yield better packings), so I went back to square one and started the analysis all over again with this new tetracube. Fortunately, it turned out to have too many solutions to the 4x4×4 cube (and many other boxes), so I rejected it. But, for a while there, I was worried that I'd have to redesign the cube.

I had lots of fun designing and playing around with the Lambada Cube, and I hope you will enjoy playing with it as much as I do. PLEASE don't just take this puzzle and put it on a shelf along with your other cubes!”

Box I made is Peruvian Walnut & Bloodwood with Ambrosia Maple Sleeve.  Top is Cherry, Bottom is Zebrawood with Maple Slipfeathers.