Corner Lock & Tom’s Little Box - Tom Jolly by John Devost

I had some 1/2” cubes on hand so I figured I should make these two cool interlocking cubes that Tom designed in 2009.

Corner Lock is a 4 piece 3x3 cube with a level move count of 1.2.2.  Once assembled the opening move is cleverly disguised!  It’s crafted from Zebrawood.

Tom’s Little Box is a 3 piece 3x3 cube with a level move count of 2.3.  This one has a cool opening move with a fun fidget factor!  It’s crafted from Leopardwood.

Instead of making individual boxes I made one box to hold both puzzles.  It’s crafted from Red Zebrawood with Maple Slipfeathers and an Oak Sleeve.

My Puzzling Life

 

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 terrible allergic reaction to some of the exotic woods (namely Cocobolo or any of the Rosewoods) that 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 buy/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.

Sadly the love of my life passed away on November 25, 2024.  

As I struggle to transition to life without my Baby I intend to spend some quality time with my boys Kyle and Ryan and my niece Tara and her daughter Alex, along with some workshop fun as time permits.

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 

My One and Only - Stewart Coffin Design #178-A by John Devost

This is another cool tray puzzle that I thought I’d make a copy of, woods used for the pieces are Redheart, Yellowheart, Zebrawood, Bocote, Black Palm, Bloodwood.

Tray is made from Peruvian Walnut with Yellowheart Slipfeathers.

Here’s Stewart’s description:

“I include this seemingly mundane puzzle design to show that there is still room for discovery within even this most common category of dissecting the plane - what I call “graph paper” puzzles. The problem here was to find a combination using the five non-symmetrical pentominoes (made of five joined squares) plus one other pentomino that fit into a rectangular tray one way only. After a long search, this goal was finally achieved.  Then, using an amazing computer program called 

PuzzleSolver3D, I had the satisfaction of confirming that I had discovered the one and only combination that met all of my requirements. Try to top that if you can.”

Turnkey - Ken Irvine by Pelikan

This is a very early Turning Interlocking Cube, in fact it was designed before that became a commonly used term.  At the IPP Washington in 2012 Ken brought along many of his novel cube designs and this design was among them.

It’s a 4x4 TIC featuring 5 pieces with a level move count of 4.1.4.4 with rotation and is crafted from Mahogany by the Pelikan Workshop that was reorganized following the sudden tragic death of Josef Pelikan in 2005.

Longtime fellow puzzler Bernhard Schweitzer aided the Pelikan Workshop in restarting their puzzling endeavours and currently are the premier craftsmen producing high quality wood puzzles.  

This particular copy is one that I had gifted my Son Kyle and had forgotten about it, it’s a very cool puzzle that was ahead of its time although now eclipsed by many of the newer TIC’s.

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!