Triple T - Guy Brette by CubicDissection

Guy has designed some really nice little burrs and Eric really did this one justice!

Here’s the description from Cubicdissection:

“Guy Brette has come up with some interesting burr variations lately, and I found the "Triple V" and "Triple T" made a nice pair. The Triple T has a tricky 3.6.3 solution but is nonetheless doable thanks to the use of three different woods. Knowing which pieces go together is a great help! When properly solved, the letter "T" shows on each axis. I quite liked the way it turned out with the complimenting shades of paduak, canary and yellowheart.

Construction was done with three species aligned by axis. Fit and finish are excellent, just a bit loose in the dry weather I have in the shop right now.

46 copies made for sale, each signed and dated.”

Juno’s Pinned Frame Burr - M

I was fortunate to have acquired this puzzle in a trade with a long time puzzle collector.

Of course it’s from the brilliant puzzle craftsman Juno, drop by Pluredro to see what he currently has to offer.

Here’s Juno’s Description:

“The puzzle requires 50 moves to remove the first piece from the assembled shape. There are lots of half push movements while assembling and disassembling and this feature makes the puzzle tricky.

There is only one possible assembly for the orientation of the internal pieces, so after disassembling, if you observe the position of the pins and grooves, you can find the right orientation of the pieces and start tracking the way to the goal.

The internal parts of this M sized puzzle are made of remnants of the L sized one so as not to waste one of the most expensive timbers: Burmese Teak. Thus, we don’t have much quantity to sell. Like most of our puzzle products, we don’t reproduce this puzzle again once it is sold out.

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

Lock’d In by Bryan Turner at Grave Raven

I recently acquired this puzzle lock in a trade and was pleasantly surprised by it (I hadn’t seen this type of lock mechanism before). There’s a nice fit and finish that certainly gives this lock an appealing look and feel.

Here’s the description from Cubicdissection:

“Lock'd In is Bryan's first puzzle lock, and it's unlike any other puzzle lock design. They are precision machined to incredibly tight tolerances from solid material at his home workshop. He describes the puzzle thus:

"How does one open a lock that has no key-hole? There are no buttons, no tools, and no magnets either... You'll have to rely on your keen senses to feel and hear the hidden parts inside!"

Arrow Blocks - Pit Khiam Goh by Tom Lensch

This is another classic design by Pit and of course beautifully crafted by Tom.

An added bonus with this difficult design is the removable top which allows you to reset the puzzle should you get stuck and want to start from the beginning again, (which is bound to happen).

Jerry wrote about it in 2014:

“Goh Pit Khiam. Singaporean Goh has designed well over sixty puzzles to-date. For some of Goh's other puzzle designs, click here. 

This one I think fits into several categories, but Sequential Movement is probably the best description. The Arrow Blocks resembles Bill Cutler's Slide-Blocked Sliding Block Puzzle but has a totally different concept. 

17.7cm (Length) x 14.0cm (Width) x 2.5cm (Height). This is a large puzzle!

The frame/box is made of Indian Rosewood, while the blocks are Maple.The arrows atop the blocks are Yellowheart and Brazilian Blackwood. 

Construction, fit and finish is top notch. Built to close tolerances but all the blocks slide smoothly. A really solid and very heavy duty feel puzzle. Another good thing about the construction is that Tom made the frame/box with a removable magnetic lid, so you can reset the puzzle easily (or if you are stuck)

Arrow Blocks was Goh's entry for the IPP32 Puzzle Design Competitionheld in Washington DC, USA in 2012.

I first saw the Arrow Blocks when I caught up with fellow puzzle blogger Roxanne Wong when she was in Singapore for a conference about a year ago. She was very kind to lend me her copy and even told me to keep it until we next met. 

I fiddled with it a bit but never really got down to playing with it. Life went on and I forgot about the puzzle. Before I knew it, I was packing up the Arrow Blocks to return it to her at IPP33 in Japan four months later.

After IPP33, I contacted Tom Lensch to see if he had any available. Initially he didn't have any but some weeks later he got back to me to say he had a spare copy which did not need to go to someone else...lucky me!

When you first look at the Arrow Blocks, it looks like another sliding block puzzle (albeit a very high-end one). You wonder how difficult can this be, after all its only 6 movable pieces, much less than the classic 15 Sliding Puzzle.

For example, when you see a complicated looking burr, it usually is! Not many are intimidatingly looking yet manageable, perhaps for a handful such as the Orsi and HALT.

Well, in this case, the Arrow Blocks would probably qualify as one of the more deceptively simple (and easy) looking puzzles around, yet the level of difficulty is beyond what it appears!

The starting point of the Arrow Blocks is with the black arrow head on the left side with the yellow arrows and the object is to place the block with the yellow arrow head into the box frame to have two arrows,each with the same colour.

Unfortunately the Arrow Blocks is one of those puzzles that if I describe even the broad steps as to what needs to be done, it would give too big a hint/clue away. One thing's for sure, there is a minimum of over 50 moves to get the Arrow Blocks from the start to the solved state. A good bit of work involved. And I must add, some thinking out of the box (no pun intended) is required here!

I had a lot of difficulty with this one and only managed to solve the puzzle halfway...if there is such a thing.

It was a good thing that Tom included the solution write-up/analysis from Goh, which itself requires consumption of a fair amount of brain power to understand. I would not have been able to solve it without the solution. I must admit, my mental model of a sliding block puzzle kept getting in the way!

Very difficult! And when we exchanged SMS about his puzzle, Goh said; "it's a bit tough I agree"... "a bit" of an understatement here I think..

A very tough puzzle with a unique and great concept from a prolific designer. And excellent quality from a well-respected craftsman. Definitely a must-have for the serious collector.”

Number Blocks - Pit Khiam Goh by Tom Lensch

When Tom offers me puzzles I always reply with an enthusiastic reply of heck yeah!  All of Pit’s designs quickly become my favourite puzzles, Tom does such nice work that I’m always very impressed!

Jerry wrote a great blog about this cool puzzle:

“Designed by my dear friend and fellow Singaporean Goh Pit Khiam (Goh is the family name), the Number Blocks is a “packing puzzle” that won a Honourable Jury Mention at the IPP35 Nob Yoshigahara Puzzle Design Competition in Ottawa,Canada in 2015.

If you are familiar with Goh’s work, you may have come across several other (physically) similar looking puzzles in the “blocks” family such as his Arrow Blocks, Stumbling Blocks, Road Blocks and Check Box. But don’t be mistaken; while they look alike, each of them are different in their own right in terms of design and solutions and all providing good challenges.

The Number Blocks comprise of Sapele for the box, maple for the pieces and walnut for the digits. Dimensionally it is about 4.5 inches square and 1.5 inches tall. Made by Tom Lensch, the puzzle is of the usual outstanding quality and construction and all the pieces move and slide smoothly.  This is an interlocking “packing puzzle” and the object here is to rearrange the pieces from the start position to the finished position as shown in the photos here. Basically you need to swap the positions of the 3 and the 4 to the right order.

Like most of Goh’s designs, there are not many pieces – just 4 ordinary looking blocks adorned with laser cut digits atop each one. But three of these blocks have extensions popping out from their sides and these protrusions interact with a channel cut into and along all four of the insides of the box. They also restrict each other’s movements within the box. The solution takes a number of steps more akin to a burr puzzle. Difficult? Well, for the more experienced puzzler, not overly so nor frustrating. But this a puzzle which requires you to exercise some thinking and re-evaluate how you would solve a packing puzzle. And typical of Goh’s design style, there is usually a “trick” of sorts to solving the Number Blocks which results in a nice a-ha moment solution.”

Play-Boy 2 - Alexander Magyarics by Pelikan

Alexander designs some awesome puzzles but this one with its crazy angles had me wondering why most pics seem to be an optical illusion.  The angles are so steep that I hadn’t seen anything like it since Wayne Daniel was crafting his tetrahedral style puzzles.

Kevin Sadler wrote about it:

“Yet again, we have another puzzle based on a non-rectilinear grid – only Pelikan seem to have the courage to do these sorts of puzzles. Taking the pieces out of the box as it had been packed for transport, I could see just how accurately these had been made – the pieces had sharp corners and I had to be careful not to stab myself. I am sure that you can see it straight away but for me it took a few days for me to realise that this one is also 'just' a 3x3x3 cube to be fitted into a box with a complex entry hole. The special feature is that this box and the pieces have been sheared along the x-axis to make a shape that is also quite difficult to visualise in your head (of course, YOUR head is probably more capable than mine). I worked on this in my usual fashion – assemble the correct shape outside the box and then work out whether and then how it can be placed inside. I am not good with a non-rectilinear grid and just finding the shape took me a little while. There are some big clues as to what is needed in looking at the shapes. The restricted entry is very helpful in limiting the possible assemblies and I was pretty sure that I had the correct one settled on fairly early. Time to work through the disassembly first outside the box and the skewed shape made it hard for me. After about ½ an hour I had it worked out – solved in about an hour? Not so fast! Actually doing the assembly proved an extra fun challenge – gravity has to be utilised just right and a good bit of dexterity. The staff at work had watched me working on it with fascination and were almost as delighted as I was when I stood up and showed them the final result.”

Mouse Hole - Alexander Magyarics by Pelikan

This is another cool design by Alex with a sliding obstruction that is much more restrictive than his other design called Wishing Well.  This is a very nicely crafted by Pelikan using Cherry, Purpleheart and American Walnut with a level move count of:

16 - 6 - 2!

Kevin Sadler wrote about it:

“These designs by Alexander just get more and more spectacular. Very few craftsmen would have agreed to mass produce this piece with a beautifully crafted box complete with a captive sliding arm (shaped like a mouse hole in a skirting board) and holders which are made from contrasting woods. The movements are wonderfully free and yet exceptionally precise. There are 3 moderately complex Purpleheart pieces to be placed in the box through a fairly wide opening but this entry is severely restricted by the moving arm over the top. I had left this one to the last because it frightened me a lot. Similarly to his Wishing Well puzzle from last year which had been very difficult for a rubbish puzzler like me. I was cutting it very fine – this one was only solved yesterday, just in time for my blog post (it is always a bit embarrassing to write about puzzles that I haven't solved yet). There are 45 possible 3x3x3 shapes that have the top S shape filled but only one can be inserted into the box with the restriction provided. The solution process is considerably narrowed down by thinking about which orientations of the pieces can fit through the restriction and once that is taken into account the number of assemblies is low enough for mere mortals to manage. Still incredibly difficult and not for the faint hearted but very solvable.”