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.”