Phil Wigfield is a new puzzle manufacturer based in the good old UK. He makes stuff the old fashioned way using lathes and measurement and creates things of beauty. He then sells them via his Etsy store. When Allard showed off the Bolted puzzle and gushed about it, I took note and thought that when my finances had recovered a bit from other puzzling expenses, I would make contact and buy something lovely in brass...except he had sold out by then. At that point I send him a message and he revealed what a great guy he is. He promised to make some more once he had managed to restock with raw materials and would let me know as soon as they were available again. It seems that with the pandemic and Brexit etc. stuff has gotten quite a bit more expensive but he honoured the original price seeing as I had asked to buy before he had reposted new stock at a new price which made it worthwhile his efforts. Top man!
It took him quite a few weeks to get raw materials in manufacture my puzzle and send out my new toy. I was very impressed with the packaging. It is beautifully presented in a nice wooden box with a metal catch. It screams "open me".
Even Mrs S was impressed by the presentation (even if she was not impressed by the arrival of yet more toys for me). Opening the box revealed a lovely pair of interlocking bolts on a padded interior.
Now, I have played with (even if I don't own) almost all of the bolts produced by Rocky Chiaro (whose website seems to be offline just now). One of the advantages (?) of being friends with Ali, Steve and Allard is that (prior to the bloody virus) I would get to drive a few hours to Birmingham every couple of months and could be tortured and made fun of by a whole bunch of fellow sufferers when I tried and failed to solve a whole bunch of puzzles that were not in my own collection. I am terrible at bolt puzzles! I am not much better at many other types but I don't seem to have the right brain processes for these - I just don't seem to be able to think about how they could possibly work and then also cannot interpret odd noises and feelings as you move them about to work out what might be inside.
I showed this off on FB when it arrived and wondered how many years it might take to solve it. Allard certainly loved it and was impressed with it which meant that I was going to struggle. What do we have? There is a nice chunky brass bolt with an appropriately big nut halfway down it. So far so easy to understand...except this large nut has another smaller bolt screwed right through it and the large bolt with a nut on one side and a couple more on the other. You have to do the obvious and try and simply unscrew everything don't you? The tow small end nuts whizz right off revealing how beautifully the fit has been made. At this point try unscrewing the small bolt from the rest of the puzzle...and of course it won't come out! There wouldn't be much puzzling if it did! It wiggles a little revealing that it should come undone at some point but it's not straightforward. Maybe the small bolt doesn't actually go through? Yes, I know it's silly but you kinda have to do the other obvious thing and try to remove the large nut from its' bolt with the smaller bolt attached and yes, I knew it wouldn't work but I did it anyway! I never claimed to be clever or even a good puzzler...in fact, this website has many instances of me claiming to be not terribly bright. Once the two obvious things had been tried with no success, I was quite stumped. It wiggles a tiny amount in each axis of expected motion but that is it.
"Self, if you were going to make something like this then how would you do it?"
Well, I haven't gone completely crazy and there were no voices answering my question. There was just a high pitched Scottish voice in my head complaining about how many toys were littering my study - oh, that was Mrs S...I can ignore that voice. Whack! Ouch! Sorry dear.
I did manage to think of a possible way that I would make this work and tried to see whether Phil had done the same thing I would. Aaaaaannd, nope! That didn't work. Back to sleep on it for another night. The following evening, I had a very rare occurrence...a thought. Not a special radical thought (I am not capable of those) but a thought that was similar to my first one but with a little twist (pardon the pun). Oh! that's interesting and rather beautifully done! Then I did something else and Bingo!
Very impressive work
That is stunningly well made - Phil did say that he had to spend a whole lot of time with a micrometer when making these and I can see why. It is a lovely idea, beautifully implemented and very well hidden. I will have to show this off to my orthopaedic friends because they will really appreciate the precision of the manufacture and the clever idea behind it.
These are still available on Phil's Etsy store - go get one, you won't be disappointed. I suspect that I will need to make another purchase from him sometime. However I will need to let my finances recover from my recent purchase of Aaron's newest creations.
Please be careful out in the world guys, We are seeing very high numbers of Covid infections throughout the world and hospitals are still very full. The unvaccinated or partially vaccinated are still getting very sick and about 10% of our hospitalised Covid patients are in the ICU either on CPAP or ventilated. If you haven't yet...GO GET YOUR JAB! Wear a mask when you are amongst others in an indoors environment. I know many places have not mandated mask usage but it is a simple thing to do and certainly effective in decreasing the risk. Ignore the crap about them raising your CO2 - this is utter bollocks! As an anaesthetist dealing with breathing circuits and ventilators all the time CO2 removal is core to what I do and masks do NOT cause it's retention (even in COPD or asthma). If you feel crap breathing through a mask with your COPD then imagine how crap you will feel with Covid-19 on a ventilator!
Sometimes I think that I am really not terribly bright - Mrs S agrees with me
about this almost all the time apart from when she wants something. The
beautiful piece of joinery above is the Grooved three piece board burr designed
by Kouki Kusumi and fabulously made by the Doctor of wood,
Eric Fuller using Maple, Wenge and gorgeous Zebrawood with some tiny acrylic dowels
to engage with the grooves.
This very simple design was released at the beginning of August and I couldn't
resist it because the design looks so simple (just 3 identical pieces) with a
nice challenging level of 8.2 and also because it won a Jury honourable
mention in last years' remote
IPP design competition. This alone would make it worth purchasing but mostly I have come to accept
Eric's choices. He loves interlocking puzzles and burrs but they have to be
something really special to pique his attention. He could make anything he
wants with extremely high level but he almost never makes that sort of puzzle.
Eric only produces puzzles that he personally finds clever and
interesting.
New Twisties The middle two look really fearsome but the outer 2
aren't that bad
A very long time ago, probably about 18 months into my puzzling "career", I
published one of my most
popular posts of all time...it was an article in which I described to people what directions were open
to them after they had learned how to solve the basic odd and even order Rubik
(face turning) cubes. There are lots of pathways and all are hugely fun because
everything you learn on the basic puzzles can be utilised later on different
geometries, different rotations or puzzles with "extras". This post was so well
received that I had to write a
follow up
once more varieties had been released. In fact, when I do get asked by beginning
puzzlers what they should buy, I always try to entice them into twisty puzzles -
they have huge variety, they tend to be less expensive than many other puzzles,
they are truly logical and the repeatability is fantastic. Yes, I know that for
many other puzzlers the twisties are a group that many of you just cannot get
your heads around but I still believe that everyone should try the cubes and a
few other variants before making up their minds. The rewards are fabulous. You
may need some help early on from fabulous puzzlers on YouTube like
SuperAntonioVivaldi
or
Pete Wyspianski (and many others) who show off the basics with great explanations as well
as the solution to incredibly complex puzzles. Once you have got these basics
then you just gradually build them up and use what you learn in more and more
complex ways. The
Twisty Puzzles forum
is full of help as well.
I am by no means an expert on these puzzles but somehow I have managed to
acquire nearly 200 different twisty puzzles and have solved most of them
(sometimes with help). Recently there have been a whole lot of new and ever
more complex puzzles manufactured by those clever chaps in China (why in
China? It seems that they have easier access to the tools required to
manufacture complex plastic puzzles)
One of the routes I advise newbie twisty puzzlers to go down is into cubes that
turn through different axes and one of the classic is the Skewb - it's
effectively a deep cut corner turning 2x2x2 cube. I found this really quite
challenging when I first bought it and it must have taken me a week or so to
master. This is not because there are difficult algorithms to learn (you only
use the famous up, up, down, down sequence to solve it) - it's because the
change in turning orientation really upset my rather feeble bwain! Once
understood it is a lovely little design that makes for a fabulous worry bead and
also really really upsets non-puzzlers when they see it and try to move it. It
does seem rather unnatural.
I was quite excited when my favourite twisty puzzle store (HKNowStore) had a bunch of new Skewbs available - the Meilong Mixup Skewbs come in 3
variants with extra semicircles in the middle of the faces. I have
previously extolled the virtues of cubes with circles in them as they
effectively provide a second puzzle within the first puzzle and then extra
approaches to the solution order. I could see that the version with only
whole semi-circles was going to be fairly trivial so I ordered the type 2
and 3:
Meilong Mixup Skewb type 2
Meilong Mixup Skewb type 3
As you can see the deep corner turning cuts are there so it is "just a
skewb" but after a partial turn the semicircles become complete and can be
turned:
Semicircles aligned and turned
More possibilities for the rotation
Having got these and taken some pics I just threw caution to the wind and
scrambled them - I was ever so slightly pleased with myself for my
stupidity/courage and I was delighted to have something rather beautiful once
scrambled - there was a small chance that it might just end up staying that
way. When I showed off the scramble on FB I received encouragement that it
really wasn't that tough a puzzle.
The Mixup Skewb version 3 was MUCH tougher for me. I know that others had said that it was easy but I had failed to realise that the reassembly of the final semicircles was going to cause me significant challenge and a lot of swearing. In the end, after at least 5 days of forming one semicircle whilst destroying another I had a wonderful AHA! moment. These pieces could be 3 cycled very like you would 3 cycle the centre pieces in a 4x4 or higher order face turning cube. It is easy to move a piece from the front face to the top (in the equivalent position) and the piece it displaces moves to the front to one side of the starting piece and then that pieces moves across. This exact idea can be performed on the "centres" or circles in the partially turned Skewb. This 3 cycle can get a little confusing because the left, right and centre wedges of the semicircles are not equivalent and it can take a little while to work out exactly which wedges need to move where. With a little trial and error, I got it.
Here you can see a three-cycle and how the L and R wedges can be out of place
There is a sort of parity where one semicircle is mixed up and won't get fixed simply but this is an error of "false equivocation" - a piece from one semicircle needs to be swapped with one from an equivalent colour. Yes it's such fun!
I have to reiterate that these puzzles are enormous fun and are just part of the natural progression within your Twisty puzzling journey...start with a simple 3x3 cube, learn it (don't bother with speed as that is mostly for teenagers) then go for a 4x4 and understand the differences. Then branch out and try other types of rotation or other geometries and then you are all set for puzzles with "extras".
Go for it...it's fun. The water is all warm in here.
Stay safe guys - the pandemic is still going and still highly transmissible. The unvaccinated are filling hospitals and intensive care units. GO GET A VACCINE!!!!
Over the years of this blog you will have seen
quite a few of these. They are helical burrs all designed by the
genius, Derek Bosch. It is quite a telling thing that out of all the incredible
puzzlers in the world, only he has designed this sort of puzzle - this is for
several reasons...primarily he is a genius but also because he thinks in 3D in a
non-linear way that the rest of us normal human beings cannot think and
especially because he has a very twisted mind! I personally would be grateful to
have a mind at all let alone an evil twisted genius one. Mrs S often berates me
for my lack of brains and she is absolutely right (see, I admitted it and she is
not standing behind me brandishing her
lochaber axe!)
I had reviewed the "He'll lick all bare, too" a few months ago and described how I had dismantled it whilst having gotten
lost in the move sequence and then had no idea how to put it back together
again. I survived the daggers (aka the
Sgian-dubh - my, aren't I full of the Scottish weapons of violence??) that
Mrs S threw at me with her glare at the noise. The nature of the 3D printing
process always mean that these are built up in layers and they make a rasping
noise as you move the pieces about and this noise is particularly annoying to
wives (or is that just my wife?).
Big Steve (from the
TwoBrassMonkeys
store) showed off the latest creation from Derek's twisted mind and claimed
that the
Polar burr
(named for the snowy white peak) had the highest number of moves yet for any
of these helical puzzles. Of course, how could I resist and a short chat with
Steve had me sending some PayPal his way and he posted me the next in the
series the following day. "Yay!" said Mrs S. Except she didn't. In fact when
the box was opened and I gleefully showed of the puzzle that was supposed to
have 36 moves to remove the first piece she stared at me long and hard as if
to dare me to play whilst we watched TV. GULP!!!
Being extremely frightened of Mrs S and her assorted weaponry, I took the
puzzle to work and annoyed a few surgeons with it but couldn't really work on
it there because the stuff that I tend to anaesthetise requires a lot of
concentration and attention to what is going on (I probably cannot afford to
lose focus when doing an
AAA repair). This meant that I had to risk possible retribution from Mrs S
and play in the evenings. I would wait until she had a cup of tea and a cat on
her lap to pin her down before I would get the puzzle out and hope that she
had not brought her throwing knives into the living room.
Over the next few evenings I explored the burr in a back and forth manner as I
usually do to lay down the pathways in my memory. There is quite a lot of
movement in this puzzle which makes it a lot of fun. I personally find that
burrs with too many false paths rapidly become less fun to play with because
it is really tough to keep the decision tree in my head (I have a minimal
capacity brain). The Polar burr is nice because it has quite a few false paths
but none are so deep or have multiple branches to leave you getting lost.
Several times in the process, I got very close to removing the first piece but
it was always blocked. One problem with these rotational puzzles is that false
movements are sometimes possible if pieces are rotated in an unintended way.
With Polar burr this is not possible - a few times it did become a bit rickety
and nearly ready to fall apart but remained stable.
Nearly there? Not for a while yet.
During the process there are several lovely moves that make you almost gasp in
delight. Back and forth the pieces dance around each other gradually moving
towards the exit. I say "almost gasp in delight" but remember that "she" is
armed and dangerous and I cannot afford to risk upsetting her any further. 😈
Finally after 4 evenings I removed the first piece and yelled silently (see my
reasons above). I was slightly concerned that I had not really understood the
last few moves as I had been watching TV at the same time. Without moving
anything else, I decided to put it back together again and relearn all the
steps...except I could not reverse the 2 or 3 moves that I had done to take
the piece out. Damn! Swearing at my stupidity I spent a rather fraught ½ hour
desperately trying to put the loose piece back in much to the amusement of Mrs
S who delights when I am in pain. Eventually it went back inside and I
returned to the beginning. Now, how did I manage that last move? It took me
one more evening to finally solve it and completely take the puzzle apart with
the confidence that I could return it to the beginning again:
Just 4 pieces but rotational moves make for a huge challenge!
I have to say that I think this is the very best one yet - the level 36 is huge
but this is very solvable even for a puzzle idiot like me. If you want to play
with it then Steve has put a few up for sale on
PuzzleParadise
- they take a very long time to print so will only be made in small batches -
keep an eye out for Steve's items there if they are sold out - the
Twobrassmonkeys store is kept for metal puzzles and the plastic goes up on
Paradise. I seem to have been quite busy with these over the year:
Lots of helicals (one might be lost somewhere in my collection) The
one in pieces is either TwiddleDum or Dee - I can't remember and can't
reassemble it
Stay safe everyone - despite what the UK government has said, it's probably too soon to be abandoning masks in public - the Delta variant is extremely infectious so every little thing you do to protect yourself will help. The numbers in our hospitals here are increasing inexorably and this includes the younger population. If you can have a vaccination then take it - any of the vaccinations are effective. We have had hundreds of millions of doses now with almost no significant adverse effects (a few hundred blood clots out of hundreds of millions of doses is insignificant). We know for certain that the vaccine works - pretty much ALL the patients admitted to hospital with Covid now in the UK are the un- or partially vaccinated or those with immune compromise. GO GET A JAB...NOW!
Is that something that Mrs S has muttered at me having opened the door to
the
UPS guy twice in one week? No, it is the motive for the latest challenge from
Joe Turner
- Free Me 7:
Free Me 7 (back to the usual format)
We have all been waiting quite a while for this to be released. Joe is a busy man and producing puzzles to satisfy the community's insatiable appetite is a long difficult process. The email about both Freem Me 7 and 8 came out way back in the middle of 2020 in which Joe explained that number 8 was going to be released a lot earlier than number 7 and, of course, I couldn't resist one of those. I am not entirely sure why he didn't just change the numbering so they were sent out in order but I am not clever enough to be a puzzle producer. The Free Me 7 was delayed because he was struggling with the required tolerances. It must have been a huge struggle because the offer of the next in the series didn't arrive until a few weeks ago. As you know I am never one to refuse a sequential discovery puzzle (or any puzzle for that matter) and I sent of some of my hard earned GBP (converted to USD) and risked the ever increasing ire of "She who must be feared".
When it arrived it was accompanied by a sealed packet containing specific instructions and a solution leaflet which so far I have resisted opening. As always, the aim is to take the coin out of the box whilst using only tools that are released as you play. Joe's wood craftsmanship is visibly progressing as he makes more puzzles. My first one was the Free Me 6 and, whilst a great puzzle, was not anything much to look at. Here we have a puzzle that is nicer on display and finished beautifully.
I couldn't resist! I had reached a dead end with the Abraham's Well from Brian Young and had this one on my pile'o'puzzles to solve next to me and went straight to it.
It is quite obvious that the end comes off but there is only a tiny amount of movement in the dovetail before the blockage is evident. OK, how do I release the blockage? There really isn't much available at this stage. Turning it over and over in my hands, I can hear things moving inside but no matter what direction I turn and what angle I am at I cannot release the dovetail. I consider putting it on the lapcat and spinning it but decide that isn't a good idea - it has been a few weeks since we trimmed his claws and I didn't want a "lap" injury when he zoomed off. I also wondered whether spinning the puzzle might actually be considered shaking? I carried on doing the same thing over and over again for a whole evening thinking I had a broken puzzle.
Of course, I did not have a broken puzzle! I was just too stupid to think of what else was possible. After a soothing day (?) in the hospital, I came home wonderfully refreshed and ready to puzzle again. OK, maybe that is a little exaggeration but I had been thinking about what else I could try and again with cat on lap, I tried something new. This time there was a change inside and the top slid off - yay! In my usual way, I wanted to understand what had happened and tried to reverse the process and lock it back up again but, yet again, I couldn't do it. I was able to replace the lid and lock it on but it was always trivial to unlock again. I could not seem to understand how it was properly locked. Time to give up on that aspect and continue...
Looking inside I could see that the coin was held securely in place by a piece of metal and I clearly needed to move or remove that object. I tried all sorts of orientations and moves and had to stop myself again spinning the bloody thing. It was not going to come free easily. Another evening passed and it was back to work again. The next time I played (starting from almost the beginning) I made a discovery... it is really quite important to enjoy a puzzle slowly and listen as well as feel and look at what it happening. I heard something happen at one point and repeated that move a few more times. It happened every time - Aha! What if I????
After I had thunk, I realised that this sequential discovery puzzle is special in that there are almost no useful tools. I had been hoping that more stuff would fall out but what was really needed was to use the tool I had properly:
That took me several days!
After my shout upset Mrs S, I went to take a photo and then reassemble it. I suddenly realised that I had not fully understood the mechanism. I could put it back together but it was quite easy to open again and remove the coin. There was more to it aka "you did it by pure luck!"
Finally, after another evening of toil, I think I have understood the puzzle mechanism. It is all hidden and needs to be manipulated blind which is not one of my strong points. Much less complex a construction and solution than either FM 6 or 8 but requiring very accurate movements. I can see now why Joe struggled to produce these - the tolerances would have to be fractions of a mm. Delightful and really good value puzzling - I am delighted to have this in my collection. I wonder when version 9 will be coming?
I am unfortunately at work again today and have rushed to solve something and have posted this in advance to keep you amused. My backlog seems to be getting bigger and I may be looking for someone to let me sleep in a spare room soon because Mrs S might well chuck me out the house when the bunch of puzzles that Mine has posted arrives!
Previous puzzles in the series
We have all known that
Juno has been
planning something big, something special, something to continue the puzzling
line of the Sequential discovery burred boxes (reviewed
here,
here
and
here). The anticipation has been rising and many puzzlers have been worried that
the puzzle flippers would get hold of it quickly to make a quick buck. True
puzzlers absolutely hate those people and none more than Juno (and Yukari) who
has written a
blog post
about how he plans to prevent it from happening - I really hope that he was
successful. He will in the future choose not to sell to people who he discovers
flip his creations for a quick profit. I whole-heartedly agree with him. I am
aware that I am privileged to have a good job and can afford to buy but selling
within days is just a sign of disrespect to the creator. At some point I may
have to sell some puzzles either to make space or to downsize my house or, more
likely, to prevent a murder in my home but at the moment my collection is my
pride and joy and I love owning and displaying them as well as solving them.
Ages - still not solved!
The sequential discovery cubed box went on sale and sold out completely in 4
minutes (all 140 copies) - I got a warning from a friend that it was about to
happen (thanks so much Jay) and was logged in and ready when the site loaded
with the puzzle and boom...in and out with my preciousssss. Postage from the
other side of the world was remarkably fast considering the pandemic has trashed
world wide flights and post, I got my mitts on it on Thursday night and set to
work. Turning it over and over to admire the beautiful workmanship revealed a
rattling noise inside - what could it be? It is an absolutely lovely object -
Fijian Mahogany is used for the main part of the puzzle, and the wood used for
the internal parts is mainly Iroko, Jarrah and sapwood of Bubinga, with Jarrah
being used especially for the parts that require durability and wear resistance.
The base is not part of the puzzle, it is there to display the puzzle - it is
made from Spotted Gum.
You might be wondering why I started work on this puzzle when my most recent
additions have also been wonderful sequential discovery puzzles from
Brian Young and Joe Turner? Lets just say that one has been solved without
understanding how it works (I'll get there before long) and the other has me
stumped at the moment - in fact I am still stumped on the third move of
Brian's
Ages puzzle bought way back in November 2019. I also could not resist starting on
the Cube because as soon as I picked it up I could feel something
moving...just a few mm but definitely moving.
This something moved and stopped and then moved back. It felt "odd". It's a
bit like having something painful on you - you just can't stop yourself
prodding at it. Each time nothing would happen and it would return to the
original position but one time it went clack when I wasn't really looking
and I had a really big hole. OMG what had I done? It wouldn't return to the
start position and I realised I was committed to working on it properly. I
managed to take the photo at the top of the post with the puzzle in the
moved position and the changes were carefully hidden from view. We had to
have dinner and then it was time to play with a customary cat on my lap and
the TV on. Having made that first inadvertent move that I couldn't reverse,
the puzzle started to move in ways that a lot of interlocking cubes do. I
have hidden the later pictures behind spoiler buttons - I have tried to
avoid showing off too much but don't look if you don't want even a small
chance of a clue.
It moves and reveals "stuff" I can't get at this stuff or get
beneath it but it is there for later
After some of this movement we see Juno's classic hand made tools - one is
available for the picking and others are stuck in place ready for later. The
first tool is now available and easily used (it's just asking for it) and I
have the opportunity to return to the beginning. I have a huge grin on my face
because the way that first move works is now understood and it's delightful. I
put it all back together and have my nice springy area again and OMG! cannot
do that first move again! Lord! I am rubbish at puzzles. It is at this point
that I recall looking inside and noticing something that didn't really impinge
on my consciousness at the time. What if I??? Oh yes that is delightful. A
really nice touch to the first move that happened accidentally the first time
but should be done with thought.
The next evening, I am back and listening to the cat. I refuse to
continue until I understand what has happened and am able to reverse my
current position. It takes a while and a bit of deduction. I have a plan
and manage to carry it out in both forward and backward directions
although I cannot seem to do it every time I try. Time to move on I
think to myself. At this point we see that it will come apart (like most
interlocking cube puzzles) but there are still compartments to open.
Again...if you are awaiting this puzzle or just don't like spoilers then
stay away from the next image (don't press the button).
We have several pieces of the cube with grooves and compartments
to open There really isn't much of a spoiler here
I now have a number of pieces and only my original tool. Now what? I
need more tools. Coming right up said Juno and the cat. Actually it took
me quite a long time to find the next tool and then another long time to
work out how to use it. It continues along like this and then we reach
the final compartment - oh that is a clever locking mechanism. I now
have found the source of the rattling noise - at least this time it is
not bread!
One cube inside another cube! Solved it.
Reassembly is a nice process with only the difficulty of the quirky move
that I struggled to understand the first time. With a bit of practice, I
can solve this puzzle at will. I am delighted - it is not the most
difficult of puzzles but is truly delightful. I really hope that Juno has
more ideas for puzzles in the series - I will definitely be wanting to
continue adding these to my collection. Now I need to get back to Free Me 7 and Abraham's Well and maybe play with Derek's latest dastardly creation made by Big Steve, Polar Burr
Remember to stay safe guys - our numbers are rocketing up and the younger unvaccinated population are the ones who are now being admitted to hospital and our ICU. If you haven't yet, go get a vaccine as soon as you can!
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)
After my week off in which I had managed to solve 5 of the 9 puzzles about to be
released by Jakub and Jaroslav's
New Pelikan Workshop, I had to return to work. Amidst the beginning of a third wave of Covid that
seems to be hitting the UK, I got a bit of a shock at how suddenly things can
change and suddenly had much less time than I wanted to play with my new toys. I
am only too aware that Jakub is waiting for me to solve and write something -
the pressure is on and I had left the most difficult ones until last.
Waffle by Oasnori Yamamoto was actually one of the first that I actually tried
from the new arrivals but I got a bit of a shock the very first evening. This
consists of 4 bright yellow mini burrsticks made from
Garapa which have been arranged into an attractive cross shape on a
Jatoba
frame and the obvious aim is to remove them. Itis immediately clear that
Burrtools is not helpful here because as soon as the pieces start to move the
requirement for rotations becomes very apparent. I began moving them about and
trying to make space for the required rotation to happen and quite quickly
lost track of what I had done - I suddenly couldn't reset the puzzle! OMG! A
lot of swearing during an episode of Grey's Anatomy had Mrs S looking at me
with anger and me sweating under that gaze as well as worrying about the
puzzle. After a fraught ½ hour I got it back to the beginning and drew a
little diagram of the start positions. I went back to work on the others and
only this last week did I start to play again. This time I actually made plans
of what I needed to do and always made sure that I could reset. Still no joy -
the pieces always seem to block the required rotation and I could not find a
way to make space. I moved on to the next one - Camel ride.
I failed on Camel ride for a couple of days and in desperation returned. Again
whilst watching TV I idly fiddled and did something without realising it. I
looked down in surprise and couldn't believe it. Moving back and forth, it is
apparent that the arrangement and movement on this one is critically accurate.
Having found that amazingly accurate move, I quickly had the puzzle solved.
This beautifully made 12(13) piece burr design by Stephan is yet another that
belongs in
Goetz' Burr zoo. I had bought this and solved it way back in 2014 after I had bought it
direct from the designer. Obviously Stephan has allowed Pelikan to reproduce
some of his more fun burrs. Having solved this way way back, I had absolutely
no recollection of the solution. I have gotten a bit rusty with burrs over the
last couple of years and this caused me quite some difficulty. The level is
16.8.9.2.2.3.4.2.1.2 so not too high a level but the fun part here is that to
make some of the moves the camel inside needs to be moved around to make space
for the other pieces to move. I managed to remove the first two pieces after 3
days of fiddling about with my usual to and fro approach. Removing the next
piece was a real challenge - finding the required moves requires looking and
experimenting and is very enjoyable. Even after almost all the pieces have
been removed it remains stable and does not collapse on itself at all.
Fabulous!
Stunning design and beautifully made
I have not yet reassembled it as I will definitely need Burrtools for this.
Fermat
Fermat by Dr Volker Latussek
Using the usual box that we are by now all rather familiar with, Dr Latussek
has branched out into the use of not rectilinear shapes. Named after the great
French mathematician, this puzzle takes 3 triangular prisms of slightly
different dimensions made from Maple and asks that they be "solved" into the
beautiful Acacia box. I have been playing with this on and off since they all
arrived and have gotten absolutely nowhere! I can get 2 pieces inside and this
can be any combination of the pieces but I have not even come close to getting
the third in with them. I think that just possibly, maybe, if I am not
delusional that I might have worked out where they all need to go for the
final solution but there is just no way that I can achieve it. I hope that
maybe someone can send me a clue once others have managed to solve it.
Lutz
Lutz by Dr Volker Latussek
Is there no end to Dr Latussek's talents? I have not had time to play with this
at all and am awaiting being told what the challenge is. A tray packing puzzle?
Probably not as there is a gap in the side of the tray. I assume that the aim is
to insert all the pieces into the tray through the gap? As always, Pelikan has
made it beautiful and I hope to play in the near future.
I would estimate that these will all be released quite soon - maybe early next week - keep an eye out on the Pelikan site or later this year on the PuzzleMaster site.
Take care out there people! The pandemic is far from over - don't become complacent. Just because you have been vaccinated, does not mean that you cannot catch it and infect others even if you don't get sick yourself. We also do not know whether the vaccine prevents the development of Long Covid which is an extremely debilitating condition.
