It Would Be Nice To Have Enough Hands For This Burr

Handy Burr by Jerry McFarland

Jerry McFarland has an attention span problem! He makes fantastic puzzles which are always immediately recognisable - I am sure that all serious puzzlers could look at the photo above and know the creator without reading the caption. He gets inundated with requests to make his toys by the puzzling community and happily starts manufacturing puzzles and earning some money and then he quickly gets bored and distracted. Before he knows it, he's thinking about something new and abandons his order book to play with his beautiful wood and, if you've been following his creations from the last few years, his very strong magnets. 

He contacted me a few weeks ago to ask whether I would be interested in looking at his latest creation - the Handy Burr and I practically bit his keyboard off and sent him a bunch of PayPal. The puzzle winged its way across the Atlantic faster than I've ever seen and I got my grubby hands (due to DIY) on it in just 4 days! I did not get much chance to do more than fiddle and admire for the first few days because of said DIY but I could tell straight away that the magnetism was strong in this one.

It is a beautiful cuboid containing 23 pieces of wood and an unbelievable 32 magnets (16 of which are in the key piece - Jerry says this must be a record). There are 2 obvious pins in the puzzle too with some obvious tracks for the pins visible in the key piece. The wood choices are stunning - Mahogany, Bubinga, Walnut, Cherry, Maple and Bloodwood.

Jerry had been initially working on a 3D coordinate motion puzzle but this did not work out so he moved on to a springy puzzle with magnets and this is definitely that.

I started work after I had finally finished constructing my cabinets (still empty) and found that there are 6 pieces that can be pushed in varying directions and need quite a bit of pressure to push them - those magnets are STRONG! If you loosen your grip even momentarily then it all springs straight back into the original shape. Having played with quite a few of Jerry's creations over the years, I sort of had an inkling what to do and managed with 6 fingers plus holding on to various other bits of the puzzle for stability and suddenly the key piece sprung upwards. Progress!

It only sprung up one voxel and the magnetic pieces stabilised. I was then able to work on manipulating the pieces and getting the key piece extended further and further until it stopped dead. Time to explore and find the release mechanism. Here I got stuck for a while and in the end I reset the puzzle by pushing it all back to the bottom and manipulating the magnetic sticks as I went. The final push of the key piece flush with the top releases the magnetic pieces all together and there is a truly wonderful CLACK! as it all reset.

I got stuck here for rather a long time - back and forth to the almost released position and stopped dead in my tracks each time. I couldn't seem to find the correct path - Jerry had hidden it all just out of sight inside. Despite doing this dozens of times, I never tired of the wonderful noise of the reset (this is a feature of a few of his magnetic puzzles).

After a whole day of trying the same thing multiple times, it was time to think© which did hurt quite a bit. I know that Jerry is quite sneaky and I got wondering in the evening whilst watching TV. What if I??

I tried my new idea and found that I needed more than 2 hands - Jerry had sent me a couple of little envelopes with clues in it and afterward I had finally saved it, I opened the envelopes and had a proper laugh out loud moment. I had looked at she who must be feared during the evening whilst wishing I had more hands/fingers/useful body parts. Each time I thought of asking her, I decided that was probably not a good idea. 

😱😱😱

Eventually after I dislocated a digit moving it into an appropriate place, I suddenly had the key piece free and I could see how well disguised the path had been.

Key piece removed (JM mark revealed with serial number on other side

The cat was not impressed with me dropping more wood on his head but he puts up with it. I put it back together immediately and then found that I could not repeat the process - that will teach me to watch TV at the same time as playing with something complex.

The following day, I managed to work it out again and was delighted with how it resisted solution but when you do the right thing it shoots out. I couldn't resist a full disassembly:

Awesome puzzle!

After taking the above picture I did scramble all the pieces and then attempted the reassembly - Jerry very helpfully writes the frame piece portions on them to ensure that the fit is good when reassembled and then I got a bit stuck on the assembly of the mechanism and had to create it outside the frame before attempting the final assembly - picture of mechanism is hidden behind a spoiler button:

A

This is a very satisfying solve and after reading the supplied solution sheet, I realised that there is another aspect to it that I had not seen. I tried the suggested approach by Jerry and this was even better and adds more understanding to the name. Jerry will be making a few more of these in the future and it will be worth while contacting him to ask to reserve one.

Snap Right To It

Snappy burr by Jerry McFarland

Yes, as soon as you see a picture like this then it's immediately obvious this was made by the incredibly talented Jerry McFarland.

At the very end of last year Jerry contacted me again to let me know that he had got sidetracked yet again! Yes, Jerry seems to have a very short attention span - he could make a fortune churning out his old puzzles to the new hordes of puzzle lovers that have joined this hobby over the last couple of years and when he produces and is happy with a new puzzle then he does make a bunch. But...he just can't seem to keep his focus on making more of the same and his incredible 3D visualising brain ends up wandering off into more thoughts of what can be achieved by interlocking pieces of wood. Over the last few years he has been very distracted by the possibilities of magnets and has created some of the best and most fun puzzles I have ever played with. 

Apparently he thought he had run out of ideas and then something new sprung to life in his head (I really wish something would show signs of life in my head - I am completely empty, Mrs S will confirm it). Previously some of his puzzles have had the added bonus of being very nice fidget toys as you get to make long sequences of magnets and burr sticks move after a single push. This time he made something that has a fidget toy inside and whilst it can be played with whole as a fidget toy (very satisfying it is too) but the aim is to remove it and play with it outside the puzzle. Jerry did not think it was  a terribly difficult solve but thought it would be fun...he really wanted some feedback - I am delighted and flattered to be one of the few given a chance. My McFarland collection really is quite wonderful now.

A snappy move reveals a hint of a serial number

On unpacking, even Mrs S admitted it was beautiful. It has been made with Mahogany, Walnut, Cherry and Kingwood with the absolutely characteristic finish that marks one of Jerry's creations. Then Mrs S lost her brownie points by saying it's "just a cube" like most of my other puzzles. She was unmoved when I told her that it was actually a cuboid and even then not a proper cuboid due to the side edges being slightly recessed. I wonder why Jerry did that? It became obvious later. Dimensions are 4.01x2.92x2.92".

I couldn't resist a little exploration even if Mrs S wanted me to do some chores instead. I very quickly realised why it was called Snappy burr (or at least one of the reasons). The fidget toy inside is controlled by some really powerful magnets and it snaps back and forth by pushing one way and the other and surprisingly the Kingwood pieces on the top and bottom spring in and out as well - this has a lovely coordinate motion with magnetic attraction and repulsion too.

I spent several days enjoying that movement whilst searching for anything else that might be possible or released by the initial movement. I had a few ideas but nothing was happening. Time to check with Jerry whether I was being silly (something I do very frequently). Jerry provided a little hint which confirmed my initial thoughts and what I had been looking for before. It was not really obvious what else could possibly move - Jerry has taken with his recent designs to putting false interlocking sections that look like they should prevent a movement but in reality don't. I had been exploring some of these pieces and made a discovery about them but had not put 2 and 2 together. Once Jerry sort of reassured me that I was thinking correctly, I tried something new and OMG! that was an unexpected thing to happen! No wonder I had not found it easily - there are some really strong magnets involved.

Another reason for the name is part of that move I just found and also what happens when you reverse it - the puzzle snaps back together with a very sharp click. It's another aspect of the fidget toy in this. After I had amused myself with it for a while I tried to see where that move had led and started dismantling bits. It doesn't come apart completely without thought. I had to work out a few movements to make some space for clearance and then out came a section. Then I managed to get a second section off. I stopped there - I was sitting on an armchair with a cat on my lap and did not want to lose track of pieces or lose anything down the cushions. 

All pieces and a fidget toy

Later in the week I managed to find time to completely dismantle the puzzle - it is not hard to do once you have worked out the initial few steps. The fidget toy is just as compulsive to play with outside the whole puzzle. I am truly delighted to have number 2:

I think Jerry is making another 8

I had scrambled all the pieces but, as with most of his previous designs the insides of the pieces are marked with what position they should go in to ensure they all fit together and align properly. Despite this the reassembly was not straightforward - I did know where everything should have gone but, having constructed the various sections according to the labels, it was not immediately obvious how to get them to slide together. On several occasions I realised that my last section could not be slid into place and I had to dismantle and try in a different order. It took an extra half an hour before I managed to "SNAP" it back together with a very satisfying clack.

Jerry has designed something very different to his previous puzzles - it's not terribly tough but it is stunningly beautiful and wonderfully satisfying. I intend to use it as my fidget toy for quite a while before I put it on display in one of my cabinets.

---

Coming soon from Pelikan

Coming soon from Pelikan puzzles

I have received a wonderful new bunch of gorgeous puzzles just a few days ago from Jakub at Pelikan puzzles. The race is on to solve them as fast as possible so that they can go on sale.

Here we have (from the back L to R):

Belopo (Alfons Eyckmans)

Jakub's cube (Alfons Eyckmans)

Euklid version 2 (Dr Volker Latussek)

Pedals (Alexander Magyarics)

Seven Woods (Stewart Coffin)

Victoria (Christoph Lohe)

Hummingbird (Osanori Yamamoto)

They all look fabulous and, as always have been beautifully made. Several of them will be seriously difficult - I have an original Jakub's cube from Alfons and have not managed to solve it yet (I sort of got distracted by a pandemic).

The Good, The Bad and the Very Beautiful

Obscure burr

I am very grateful that Jerry McFarland keeps in touch with me! He is a truly lovely man and always pleased to have feedback on his new creations. Pictured above we have a lovely cuboidal puzzle that is immediately obvious as Jerry's work. He has called it the obscure burr. I was allowed to buy a copy at a very reduced price as it is just a prototype - even his prototypes are beautiful.

I am the third person to receive a copy and I hope that I am the one that Jerry is pleased with the outcome. The whole point of this is that the solution is based on an obscure mathematical idea - at least that was the description given by Jerry's brother after he described it to him.

Jerry had sent this to both Brent (of FiveSinatras fame) and also Bill Cutler (who is a proper mathematician having been a maths professor) and both had solved it but...

they cheated!!!!! 😜

The aim, as usual is to dismantle the interlocking cube (obviously by removing the central key piece which, here, stands out as a vibrant Padauk). Yes I can hear your gasp of horror! They cheated? Well, sort of. Some of you may recall some of Jerry's much earlier puzzles - the Quadlocks were stunning works of art that had multiple moving pieces in several dimensions that literally had to be solved like picking a lock. It has been quite some time since I played with them but they were quite a challenge for me.

Quadlock 1 (way back in 2011)

Quadlock 4 (from 2012)

So, the main aim of the Obscure burr from Jerry's point of view is to solve it using the mathematical technique that he wants you to find. This should be a "good" puzzle but I am really "bad" at solving mathematical puzzles (although I am pretty good at Sudoku, Kakuro etc). I could see that Jerry was really quite disappointed that both Bill and Brent had succumbed to the urge to get the solution quickly and they lock-picked it open. Despite that, I do think they both enjoyed the puzzle even if it wasn't terribly hard to do.

I promised Jerry that I would not give up so easily (he said that as soon as I pick it up then I will see the strange feature and use that to help me. After my initial photos, I could see that there were a whole lot of magnets in there - the light brown burr sticks can move freely in each direction and snap into place at each position thanks to these rather powerful magnets. The white burr sticks were fixed and would not move. Lord! The temptation was there to put pressure on the central key piece and move the sticks around to feel what was happening in side...but nope! I was going to be a "good" boy! 

The strange feature that Jerry had promised was a 3 digit number stamped into the end surface - in my case it was the number 177. What on earth did that mean? I had no idea. There are 5 sticks that can move but only 3 positions for each one - each of those sticks is also stamped on one end with a number (1 to 5 from the bottom) - did this matter? I tried to make 177 up using various combinations of the 1-5 and 3 positions. Nothing really worked. 

Off to Google to find any interesting theorems or combinatorics that involved the number 177.  Well there were some really interesting features to that number but none of them helped. Jerry insisted that it was very solvable but that he was working on having a clue built into the puzzle but covered by a magnetic plate. After 2 weeks, I had to ask for the clue and Jerry replied with just a single English word and a number:

AHA!

With that clue, I had some definite ideas and within a couple of minutes I had the key piece removed I have put the next picture behind a button because there potentially might be a spoiler there and I don't want anyone to work out how it was supposed to be solved from my picture:

Finally after 3 weeks!

It was a "good" feeling to finally understand the obscure mathematics behind it and I felt "bad" for not having worked it out. But...I actually don't think that it would ever have been possible for me to work it out myself. I don't think there is enough on the puzzle for the maths to be visible.

The next step is to take it apart and that also was not trivial. It doesn't just dismantle after removing the key piece. There is a particular trick that Jerry has used before and it took me a little while to spot the trick and remember what he had done before - I soon had a nicely arranged set of pieces and some seriously strong magnets which keep clamping them together when you let go.

So we have "the good" aka me
"the bad" aka Brent and Bill (plus a rather obscure puzzle idea)
AND the beautiful - nothing Jerry has ever done is ugly

Having solved it the "good" way, I decided to assemble it again and see what it was like to solve the "bad" way and lock-pick it. Placing pressure on the key piece and moving pieces around in various orders left me with a solved puzzle in just a matter of minutes - it is pretty easy to cheat with this puzzle - almost trivial for anyone with any experience. Jerry had already thought about it and designed a mitigating mechanism which he thought might require too many hands to solve by cheating but in my opinion that will not work.

Jerry has had quite a lot of requests to purchase copies of this puzzle and he really wanted my opinion about the viability of this as a puzzle - what should I say? I obviously don't want to upset a very good friend but also feel that you all as potential purchasers need honest feedback and Jerry should know whether it is actually a "good" puzzle. Here is part of what I wrote to him:

"Your clue was just what I needed. It took a bit of experimenting to work out but I worked that out and managed to take the key piece out and dismantle the puzzle. Very nicely made and nice idea. Having taken the key out, I did like your signature well hidden next step. It took me another 15 minutes to find that move.

I then went back and lock picked it instead and that is almost trivial to do. I definitely don’t think your suggested locking mechanism will prevent lock picking. The only way to prevent that is to deliberately create several "false set" positions. That will throw off all but the best lock pickers and will mean it has to be solved mathematically or by huge amounts of trial and error which would not be fun.

Do I think it is a great puzzle? That is difficult to say. It is a fabulous idea but I think only a tiny minority of  puzzlers are mathematicians and almost none of us would get it without a clue. Why would we choose this mechanism? Without the clue, I would never have known to try what I did. As you have seen with Bill and Brent, most puzzlers will not try and figure out a mathematical puzzle. They will just lock pick it and maybe be a bit dissatisfied because doing that is pretty easy. On the other hand, your puzzles are extremely collectable and many people would buy it just so that they could have another of your puzzles in their collection. 

Whilst this would earn you some money, I don’t think that you would be happy knowing that you had a puzzle that people wanted to buy purely for who made it rather than for the solution process. I myself am delighted to have another of your puzzles and it took a supreme amount of self control to stop myself lock picking it from the beginning.

I really hope this helps you decide what to do."

In the end Jerry has decided that the idea and the tactile feel of the puzzle is too good to leave on a shelf and will make a bunch for interested puzzlers. I have to agree with him - it is a really lovely thing and a clever idea. If you lock pick it then it will literally only take you a few minutes and then you will just have the more minor challenge of dismantling and reassembly. If you try to use the methematical solution then maybe you will work it out - I am sure that you all are a lot brighter than me but Jerry will put a clue in the puzzle to help you. 

Of course, I am only too delighted to have another of his puzzles in my collection and I am positive that you will be too (the Burrlephant remains in pride of place on my mantlepiece).

Elephants to remind me of my mother (she grew up in Kenya)

Jerry Expands My Menagerie

Burrlephant 3.0

Jerry McFarland is another craftsman whom I consider a good friend! He never fobs me off when I ask silly questions and seems genuinely interested in what I have to say about his puzzles. Many years ago, before I started on this rather expensive time-consuming pathway, I had seen that Jerry had created an interlocking puzzle/burr in the shape of an elephant. I had lusted after one since the beginning and have been badgering him to remake them for quite a few years. Jerry generally has a very low boredom threshold and seldom remakes puzzles or even makes a batch of puzzles for long. He only ever committed to letting me buy one if he every decided to make more.

Why was I so keen on the elephant? I love special shapes and I love Jerry's puzzles. But this had become almost a grail puzzle for me. Ever since my mother died a few years ago, I had wanted one of these as a reminder of her. My mother's family had been refugees from Germany in 1939 and arrived in the UK with only the clothes they were wearing. The authorities decided that England was full at that stage and they sent the later refugees out to the colonies to live. My grandparents were shipped off by boat to Kenya and were told they could buy a plot of land in the countryside with a grant the British government gave them. These store keepers had to learn very fast how to become farmers or die of starvation. My mother was born out there and used to tell tales of growing up with wild animals occasionally rampaging through their farm. She was particularly fond of elephants as several used to wander through quite frequently. After she returned to the UK in her 20s she continued to collect all sorts of ornaments to remind her of her country of birth. She had a nice collection of elephants that I managed to snaffle after she died (many of them had been bought by Mrs S and I over the years). I even managed to get her a puzzle elephant - the rather lovely but not terribly difficult elephant burr from Jakub's Pelikan puzzles. It was one of my favourite things to do when I visited, to take it apart and leave a pile of pieces on her coffee table. She would never even try and assemble it but would harangue me about being a bad son until I put it back together.

She was very intrigued by the lion I bought from Stephan Baumegger and after she died, I took her collection of elephants back into my care and most have been in my living room watching me in the evenings. Out of the blue Jerry informed me that he had some new ideas for a Burrlephant version 3. That was sometime last year and I had almost forgotten about it until he contacts me a few weeks ago to say that he has been successful and would I like to try out the prototype? I doubt that 30seconds went by before I said absolutely and let me send you some money! The puzzle arrived a couple of weeks later and to my horror, Mrs S insisted on a quarantine! She is much worse than a wild animal when angry so I had to just accept her rule. I was absolutely delighted when I took it out of the box:

Ebony eyes mimic the real thing

This puzzle was one of the first that he had made entirely from exotic woods and, as you can see is stunning. This has been constructed from Jatoba, Bloodwood, Bubinga and Ebony as well as metal and magnets. The size is a very decent 11cm high, 16cm long (including tusks) and 5.5cm wide (11cm if you include the ears). It is surprisingly heavy. Jerry always marks the pieces that can be mixed up to ensure that the assembled puzzle is smooth and no small differences in size ruin the look. The feet have been labelled:

All nicely labelled!

Initially nothing can move apart from there seems to be a spring inside as the tail can be pushed in and springs back into position. I pressed this tail many hundreds of times hoping that it would free something up to move - there are quite a lot pieces that are screaming at you to be locking mechanisms (especially if you have seen any of Jerry's other work). Of course he would not have made it quite that simple. I played over a few evenings, gradually finding more and more interesting features and getting further and further through the puzzle. Let me say this puzzle is not for the squeamish - you have to do a series of unspeakably horrible things to the poor elephant before finally tearing him asunder. There are basically 4 locking mechanisms holding the elephant together and, whilst not terribly difficult, they are great fun to explore and discover. The third lock really took me quite a while to work out - 3 evenings before I finally got it.

Having worked out all the locking mechanisms, there was no way I was going to take it apart in the living room with a cat on my lap! I had to wait until the weekend before I could dismantle the lovely elephant completely and scramble the pieces.

No longer recognisable as an elephant!
Certain pieces may not be shown here to avoid spoilers

The "key piece" has Jerry's usual maker's mark and the year. Mine has serial number 2 for which I am eternally grateful. The reassembly is also fun. Not so much because the locking mechanisms are hard to do in reverse but because after scrambling the pieces and not paying enough attention to what goes where, it is a nice challenge to put everything in the right place in the right order.

I know that Jerry will be making a few more of these over the next few months but I don’t know how many. If you want one then you should ask early as Jerry’s poor attention span will force him to move onto something new before long. It’s not a terribly difficult puzzle - I think it is pretty much just right! This is one of my most prized possessions - it is stunningly beautiful, it is a masterpiece by the Master himself and best of all, reminds me of my late mum! It is not on the shelf with my other McFarland puzzles:

Top 2 shelves from Jerry
Below that are cubes from Alfons and my prize possessions - wooden Hales puzzles

Jerry's "Caramel case" aka the 42 Piece burrset

The Burrlephant now lives in my living room watching me whilst I sit and watch TV or play. I think it will stay there forever! The rest of my menagerie is there watching over me and Mrs S:

My little zoo!

Thank you Jerry, you have made a grown man cry!

Jerry Makes a Fidget Toy

Oh, and It's a Puzzle Too!

Fidget Burr
Yep! Free the lady is the aim.

Jerry McFarland and I chat quite frequently and I was most pleased to hear that he is being kept busy making BurrNova 3D (aka Magnetic Madness) puzzles after it won a prize in the Nob Yoshigahara design competition at the 2018 IPP. After the prize was won and I wrote my review (review of the 2D version here) many people contacted Jerry to get copies and he has been kept very busy producing copies for people. At the same time, his mind never stops - he has improved my version 0.8 (prototype) a number of times and is currently on version 2.5. Whilst discussing the possibility of upgrading my prototype to the latest (mine had seized up due to weaker magnets and British high humidity), he also dropped on me that he has been thinking about other ways to use wood and magnets and make fun puzzles. He has a mind like a trap that just never stops! In fact, he told me that he struggles to make lots of copies of older puzzles because he gets easily bored.

After some too and fro by email, a pair of boxes arrived much to the anger of Mrs S and much to the eager pleasure of the furry boy cats who lurve my boxes! The first one contained my new improved BurrNova and I could see the improvements immediately and also appreciated the use of Mahogany in place of Maple:

Version 2.5 on the left and prototype (now returned to Jerry) on the right

The new puzzle was in the second box and when I showed it off to "she who is getting rather pissed off with the constant puzzle deliveries", she did state that she was sure that I had one of those already. I corrected her but I can sort of understand - Jerry's work has a certain look...it is completely unmistakable. Yes, she is right, I do have several of Jerry's masterpieces in my collection and hence a number of puzzles that look similar. I emphatically stated that every single one of them was extremely different and she sort of grumpily accepted it.

This latest puzzle (prototype again) has a number of names: Fidget burr, Dollar burr, Chin burr or BurrNova parallel - reasons for most of these later but I think only the first 2 may stick. Yet again, Jerry added a little whimsy to the whole thing by adding the free the lady in distress element to it. It is very offputting to pick up the puzzle and see a girl staring out of it at you - Mrs S says he's got a sick mind! Immediately I found out why it is called the Fidget burr - pushing that very inviting central key piece results in a wonderfully loud and (if you're not expecting it) surprising automatic sequence of moves of 4 pieces around the edges:

Just one push leads to a whole sequence

After this, something else is possible...or not, depending on which direction you pushed the key piece and then nothing, nada, nichts and bugger all! There are inviting notches in pieces and the appearance that other pieces of the puzzle may move. I spent a day or so exploring these other pieces and realised that all is blocked. It is at this point that the name comes into play. I was singularly failing to get any further in solving this but had a wonderful time pushing it all back to the start and then Thrrrrrrrrp! setting it off again! This is a beautiful fidget toy with the added bonus of making a lovely racket that annoys the hell out of the present wife. I seem to recall that at one point she threatened to throw it out a window - disgraceful!

I fidgeted away with it for nearly a week and thought. This is an exercise that does not come easily to me and I find quite painful. I recalled other puzzles that Jerry had made and decided to try something that had worked in one of them. Suddenly I had a new move! Yessssss! In my surprise, I sat back and reset it by accident. Slightly stupid and disappointing but at least I knew what was required. It would appear that this is a fidget toy, a burr and a dexterity puzzle.

Having made the crucial hidden next move, I wondered whether any more like that might be required. Searching for them just ended up with me resetting the puzzle a few times so I looked elsewhere. The next move requires either knowledge of others of his puzzles or a very close examination of the pieces that are visible. Surprisingly, I managed this step quite quickly and found myself with a partially dismantled puzzle and a frightening step to do next...I had to remove the automatic section with its very strong magnets. All is there to be seen and it quickly came out and was set aside.

Finally, after nearly 2 weeks of play, I had a nice pile of pieces or "kindling" as Mrs S has taken to calling these sorts of puzzles:

Fabulous! The mechanism is edited out so no use peaking!

The attention to detail is wonderful, right through to the initials and year as well as a perfectly cut out hole for the princess to sleep in:

Such attention to detail!

No clues here - all details edited out

Of course, this puzzle was going set me a further challenge! How to put it back together. Jerry expected this to be quite tough and even sent a sealed envelope with a suggested approach on it. I initially tried without the instructions but could not remember what went where and looked at them after a short while. Jerry's approach did not help me at all! After an hour of trying to repeat what he had said, I gave up and went back to searching for my own method. I was eventually able to work out where the specific pieces went and then using a fair bit of dexterity I was able to assemble the automatic section in the centre of the frame in a rather fun 2 or 3 stage process which led to another of those wonderful Thrrrrrrp noises again and the rest of the puzzle was assembled. Finally back to the beginning and I had to report back. Jerry, this puzzle is a winner! Lovely idea, beautifully made and quite a challenge of both thought and dexterity in several places. I loved it.

But...........why is it called the "Chin burr"? Apparently, the reason for this name is that the final step in the reset of the puzzle needs more hands than we have. Jerry solved that by using his chin! I laughed at how dense I was but had to admit that in my case I would have called it a "nose burr" (think about it!)

This puzzle is NOT available as yet - please don't pester/ask Jerry for a copy as he is not making them for sale just yet. He is still working on it and may improve it further and it will probably be seen in an IPP design competition occurring in the next year. When it eventually does reach a stage where he is happy with it, it will definitely be worth buying.

Now I should probably put it away before Mrs S goes ahead with her threat to chop my fingers off if I keep making that Thrrrrrrp noise!