My Puzzling exploits - John Devost - ‘Canuck’

I probably should do a blog post about myself as I’m nearing my 60 birthday..

I was born in Toronto in 1963 and grew up with 6 sisters and 2 brothers, (my oldest brother Renee passed away at 37).

I had access to a workshop from a very young age and is what probably led me into puzzlemaking after retiring from Ironwork/Sheet Metal work.  I worked on many notable buildings in Toronto such as Rogers Centre (Skydome), TD Bank 4/5, BCE Towers, Scotia Bank, Hospital For Sick Kids, etc..

I met Barb in 1994 in Ontario at the Ford Oakville plant, she was doing security and my company (BMJ Welding) was doing metal decking/welding..in ‘95 we were involved in a truck crash were we were both ejected and Barb suffered a C6/7 spinal injury rendering her a quadriplegic.

We decided to relocate back to her hometown of Lower Sackville Nova Scotia in ‘98 coinciding with our oldest son Kyle’s birth and two years later she gave birth to our son Ryan.

Once we had settled into our current home the basement was more than big enough to set up a bona fide workshop.

Initially I made furniture coffee table, end tables, bookcase, etc..my first internet search back then looking for future projects was John Rausch’s ‘Puzzle World’, I was instantly taken aback by these small wooden puzzles!

Most were Stewart Coffin designed puzzles crafted by him and Tom Lensch, Wayne Daniel, etc..having a woodworking background I immediately tried making some standard 6-piece burrs foolishly thinking they’d be easy to make, boy was I wrong!

Back to the internet I went..I spotted a website called ‘Interlocking Puzzles’ which I didn’t realize at the time was founded by Wayne Daniel with his daughter and husband overseeing it.

I purchased many puzzles from their California webshop in an attempt to replicate their work.  Let’s just say my work never equaled their outstanding craftsmanship, but did give me something to aspire to.

Some of my very early puzzles were sold locally at fairs and booths at a mall, family also have some probably gathering dust, lol.

Eventually I found my niche was Box Packing type puzzles and soon started talking to Bill Cutler about making some of his designs for him to sell at his website.

At about that time I found Eric Fuller puzzles online and would go on to purchase some of his early work and contacted him about possibly selling some of my puzzles at CubicDissection alongside Robert Yarger - ‘Stickman’ and Mark McCallum.  My first offering was David Singmaster’s 25-piece packing puzzle.

In 2008 things at CubicDissection became a bit overwhelming for me to keep up with offering enough of a large run of puzzles to sell so I eventually left.  

Of course I was now left with no online presence so was going to start on a revamped Davans by Jose W. Diaz, who coincidentally co-designed ‘Barb’s Cube’ (named after my wife).

I eventually decided to start my own website Puzzle Paradise as I thought that other puzzlers could take advantage of a website where you could buy/sell/trade puzzles.

Unfortunately I had a viscous allergic reaction to most of the exotic woods I was using and pretty much forced me to stop making puzzles back in 2011 and I eventually handed over the software to fellow puzzler Chris and I’m proud to say still operating as a free place to sell puzzles.

Barb’s mobility issues have worsened over the years and most of my free time is now spent looking after her…I still use my Beall Buffing System on occasion to give the odd puzzle a refresh.

I’m currently an avid Juno and Alfons Eyckmans puzzle collector, drop me a line if you happen to have any for sale or trade.

Happy Puzzling John ‘Canuck’ Devost.

Here’s a list of Puzzle Collaborations:

Eric Fuller - CubicDissection

• Portable Pen Puzzlebox - made the Pen & Pencil set

Robert Yarger - Stickman

• Chopsticks PuzzleBox (second edition) only made the Chopsticks

• Domino PuzzleBox- made the Dominos all in Holly with a couple of special variants using Spalted Myrtle Burl and Macassar Ebony

Jerry McFarland

• Burrloon - Pit Khiam Goh - Lacquered and Triple buffed and assembled pieces (highest level 18 piece burr known at the time) - 6 copies sold at CubicDissection 
• 18 Burr Piece Packing - Loren Larson (Jerry made the burr pieces) made the box and triple buffed everything even the box interior!
• Mak-Step - (Altekruse variant) Ronald Kint-Bruynseels (Jerry made the burr pieces supplied as in gang length) only 4 or so made!
• 14 piece Alekruse - Stewart Coffin - probably made 8 copies using supplied burr stock from Jerry!

Tom Lensch

• Made many ‘Hexstix’ variants using hexagonal stock from Tom!

Jose W. Diaz

• Barb’s Cube - only made two copies for IPP Design Competition (both copies given to puzzle friend Bernhard Schweitzer.  Scott Peterson made a run in 2010 and Tom Lensch made a run a little later!

• Dave’s Cube - only ever made a prototype - Named after Jose’s Son

I’d also like to personally thank the following Designers for allowing me to recreate their designs:

Stewart T. Coffin:

• Probably over 50 different puzzle designs made over the years..

Bill Cutler:

• Blockhead
• Cutler’s Dilemma 2
• Boxed Box

William Strijbos:

• Anti-Slide
• Tube it In
• Just Fit

Oskar Van Deventer:

• Domino Tower
• Domino Block

Ronald Kint-Bruynseels:

• Mak-Step
• Hextasy 

Jacques Haubrich:

• Four To Square

Gregory Benedetti:

• Stand Py Me
• Molecular Burr

Guy Brette: Rest in Peace - Guy’s Blog

• Two Flowers Gyb

Dean Hoffman:

• Hoffman Packing

Rick Eason:

• Twenty Cube

David Singmaster:

• 25 Piece packing 

Trevor Wood:

• Holey Squares Cube

Vaclav Obsivac:

• Prismastar

Loren Larson:

• 18 Burr Piece Packing

Primitivo Familiar Ramos

• Pack the Podium

Lucie Pauwels

• Bricabrac 

Alexander Magyarics

• Gorilla Evolution