Juno Makes a Fantastic Case for Collecting Boxes!

Card Case from Juno

Let me start by saying that there are no spoiler photos in this blog - there are some photos that some might think show too much but I have hidden all the important stuff and what can be seen is visible within 5 seconds of looking at the puzzle.

I told you about this gorgeous puzzle last week - the Card case went on sale last Sunday and sold 120 copies in just a few days (as I write there are still 21 left for sale) and you should definitely consider buying one. In summary, it is beautiful, tactile, fun, with a nice pair of Aha! moments/you sneaky bastard moments. Is it difficult? Not terribly - I really enjoyed the challenges - there are 3 in total and I still have the last one to do.

Juno's Cases so far

Juno has called this the card case because it is the right size to hold some credit cards. I had initally thought that it might be able to hold a pack of cards but that is not so. As a wallet, this seriously fails...If you put your credit cards in it, it's going to be a real problem when it comes to paying for stuff. Even when you know the solution, it takes a good few minutes to get it open and, I don't know about you, but this will not fit into either trouser pocket (pants to you yanks) or jacket pocket to carry it around. I guess it might be good at slowing Mrs S down in her shopping but she has her cards on her phone for that unfortunately. I think that I have all the other cases that he has made and I am certain that many of you will delight in reminding me that they are actually boxes which Juno has named in such a way as to allay my aversion to collecting boxes. It was a sobering thought when George informed me and the world that if bread fits inside then they are all boxes and Juno began adding loaves to my puzzles as a joke. In fact, if we accept that they are boxes if they are cases or called boxes then Juno has tricked me into buying quite a lot of boxes over the years. I had to think how much I have spent on this little lot (I REALLY hate to think that Mrs S might find out!)

Cases and boxes from Juno

Right, sorry about the side-track. Back to the Card case...

This beauty is instantly recognisable as Juno's work. He has made them from Bubinga (Sap wood), Jarrah, American Rock Maple, Golden Sassafras and Plywood (Oak + Poplar core). It's a nice comfortable puzzle to play with due to its' size at 112 x 86 x 55 mm and the very nice tactile bevelling on the edges. Juno has classified it as a hidden maze-type puzzle box (another reason that it's Ok for me to own) and as you play with it, you will be able to partially see the hidden paths and reach the goal if you persevere in your efforts. He also states that there is more than one challenge to the puzzle. Apart from opening the puzzle the next step is to remove the red-coloured slider at the top without using an external tool. After that has been done Juno has given us a second, much more difficult, maze to try and navigate blind.

As I have already said, the maze quickly becomes visible once you start to play but not quite all of it. Some parts you need to deduce during your navigation. If you have worked on a Revomaze then this will be right up your street (the mazes are nowhere near as complex as them). Once you have worked your way through the maze a bit then you suddenly realise that you haven't really made any progress. Something is odd about this puzzle and then you will have to Think© (just a little bit) to interpret some of the clues that Juno has put in front of you. First Aha! moment under your belt and then you have some more work to do and it is quite fun. I tried to do it without mapping and managed quite a lot of it but eventually did need to take some notes on the paths. After about an hour (because I'm rubbish at boxes) I had the maze removed but this has not completely opened the box - the red slider was still trapped:

First stage done but it's not open yet
what little you can see of the maze is NOT a spoiler

The next step to finally opening it shouldn't take you too long if you are used to boxes. For me, I am not terribly bright and I thunk© and thunk© and thunk© to no avail. Time for an iced coffee - it is bloody hot in the UK just now. The room where I puzzle is currently 30.6ºC and the thermometer in the sun on the back of my house is reading 44ºC - Ouch! My study where I write the blog posts is at the cooler front of the house but I have a bit of a space problem just now:

I really must tidy up before "she" starts throwing things away!

After my coffee, I had a little brainstorm and my "what if I" moment turned to a final solution - delightful and clever. 

Fully solved and ready for reassembly with the other maze
Once you have seen the other maze, you will realise why it is so much more difficult.

Obviously I had to buy this to ensure my collection remained complete but you also should buy it - it is a lovely idea, absolutely stunning to look at and play with, might work as a credit card wallet and is pretty reasonably priced ($192AUD is about $136USD, £112GBP or €133) - this is not one that will break the bank. Juno has produced a lot of them with the aim to prevent the puzzle flippers making a fast buck and ruining everything for everyone.

Now I need to go and lie down because of the heat - hopefully the cat won't join me! 😱😱😱

Mrs S has Really Good Taste

and Kelly Makes A Fool Out of Me!

Mrs S bought me a wonderful birthday present

A few weeks ago I showed off the lovely gift that was given to me by the present wife - she's doing OK for a first wife after over 27 years! I can't afford a divorce and the patio is nicely done so I cannot put her under there - I guess that whilst she continues to put up with my $hit then she'll be a keeper. I was delighted to get the next 2 in Juno's grooved 6 piece board burr series - #5 (right) and #6 (left) as well as a new one, Bubinburr, in the centre.

Stunning series

I have to say that as a set, they are simply gorgeous. Plus, as a series of puzzles they are also a brilliant and fun challenge. I am not a particular fan of board burrs in general (they tend to be very prone to rotational shortcuts) and tend to only be interested if there is something else really special about them. The grooved board burr series definitely have that something special...not only are they made from Juno's own beautiful home made plywood but the addition of the dowels and grooves turn these into a real challenge. At times during the solutions these really look like they will become very unstable and cheating rotations may become possible but the clever designs prevent this from occurring and we get a fabulous tough but not impossible challenge. My reviews of the others are here: #1, #2, #3 and #4 - every single one has been a special challenge in it's own right and I was only too pleased to see that Juno has continued the series. Don't just take my word for it - Mike at Puzzlepusher has been working on these recently and seems to also have loved them. The recent 2 are still in stock at Pluredro.com for the moment. 

The puzzle is made out of their original plywood. American Rock Maple is used for the outer layer and the darker timber used for the inner layer is Amora. The grain on the Maple is understated but still lovely and the contrast between the two wood colours is lovely. These are nice chunky puzzles, very satisfying to hold and play with (even if this means storing them is harder) - they are 8.2cm in each dimension (apart from time).

According to Juno and Yukari, "the fifth version of the series has a configuration very similar to the first version. Also, the number of moves needed to disassemble the first piece is the same as #1, 22 but #5 has a tricky feature. That was the reason why Juno thought he should produce this version."

I have to agree - I cannot remember the details of solving #1 but this new version led me in the wrong direction for quite a while.

"The grooves are set to have a symmetrical orientation when assembled to give unification, but not to spoil the unique solution. A few grooves are added or extended more than necessary. Thus, not all the grooves are used during the solving process." This definitely was part of my struggle during the solution process - the temptation during all the moving about of the pieces is that when they slide within a groove to always slide to the end of a groove because the thinking is that why would he make the groove longer than it needs to be? To answer that...he would make it longer because it either a) makes a fool out of me or b) looks nicer/symmetrical.

In my usual fashion, I started work on this in the evenings in front of the TV with Mrs S (she got to see me playing with her birthday present and appreciated that for once I wasn't making a lot of noise whilst she wanted to watch television). Unfortunately these puzzles really need decent concentration and I struggle to uni-task let alone multi-task! I got nowhere the first evening. I can't really remember but I must have done the same sequence of moves 20 or 30 times without realising it. The 10pm news was full of doom, gloom and death and I used that as an opportunity to actually concentrate on the puzzle. I finally found a new configuration that I had not expected - it was a little side branch off the path that I had taken several times. I stopped there and back-tracked to the beginning ready for trying again the next day.

The following evening I couldn't find the new move again and went around and around in circles for a while before finding it again almost by accident. From here, I needed to find the next move(s) and was delighted and very surprised to see something totally unexpected happen and the first piece came out in my hand. Brilliant and very unusual release method. I spent a few minutes admiring that and decided to put it back and head back to the beginning...except I couldn't find the pathway. Aaargh, not again! Mrs S was less amused when I started to swear like a navvy - it took me another 20 minutes or so to reset the puzzle. Phew! Time to continue having learned that reset sequence. I removed the piece again and expected that the next pieces would be easily removable...they weren't! Even with a piece missing, this board burr remains pretty stable and there is quite a decent pathway to remove the next 2 pieces. This design is absolutely superb! Finally, after 3 evenings I have managed to take it apart:

Well, that took me an unexpectedly long time!

As you can see, the pieces are beautifully constructed. Initially, I was able to reassemble and disassemble this puzzle several times from memory. Today, however, in disassembling it for the blog photos, I discovered that I could barely remember the sequence and having dismantled it with a struggle and taken my photo, there is absolutely no way that it will be going back together again without help. Burrtools will be coming to my aid - luckily the making of the BT files is all part of the fun for me - no burr is complete until I have modeled it. 

I am looking forward to solving #6 but this is proving (blush) a little, ahem...awkward! The bloody thing won't come apart for a simpleton like me! I'll keep you all posted. Go buy these, you won't be disappointed.

---

Kel's Spend me not box

One Handed Box remains unsolved

My friend Kelly Snache makes beautiful boxes. At least one of these boxes has scared the bejeezus out of me when I solved it at an MPP a few years ago. I don't own many of his puzzles because, as you all know, I don't collect boxes. I do own a few because they either have something extra to them, or they are Stickman boxes (I still have the latest one designed by Asher Simon sitting right next to me in pieces on my desk after I pulled the pin from the grenade...) or they are simply beautiful.

Kel showed off his latest production run on Facebook and it looked gorgeous to me - I couldn't resist the Zebrano,Wenge and Purpleheart combination and also there is a butterfly inside. It was the butterfly shooting out of the box at the MPP that scared me. The lovely little box has been sitting next to me in the evenings for a few weeks and I have been completely unable to find anything at all to move and open it. Then earlier this week, I noticed something and and wondered how it could be used. I knew that it had to be significant but I got no further until I had a little think© and noticed something in the interior. With a smile I then quickly opened the box (it only took me 3 weeks) and took my photo today.

Pretty isn't it?

Having taken my photo, I suddenly realised that Kel has had the last laugh...I closed it up for the photo with the butterfly outside and now cannot open it again to put the butterfly back! Doh!!! Now I really need to think© and now you can see why I shouldn't collect boxes! Thank you mate - it's a delight.

A Masterclass in Thoughtful Design...

Lock Box

I can hear you all gasp in disbelief! Yes, I have bought a box!
BUT...
It's not really a box! Eric described the Lock Box as a "sequential discovery puzzle box" - the answer is right there in front of you - the primary part of the description and hence the bit that came first is sequential discovery puzzle. This means that it is OK for me to buy it - I really don't object to puzzles with cavities as long as there is something special to the puzzling for me. You all know that I love SD puzzles and, of course, I am hopelessly addicted to gorgeous wood. This wondrous construction is stunning being made from Figured Waterfall Sapele with a key made from Sapele and Jatoba (plus a few bits of metal here and there. It is so beautiful that I have kept it in my living room on display - although Mrs S is starting to get impatient again with the number of puzzles building up there again.

The puzzle is a very nice size for hand holding at 3" x 4" x 1.45" (I really don't understand why you Yanks won't go metric for small linear measurement) and the key is 2.45" x 1.25" x 0.75". Eric described this as one of his best designs to date and that tipped me over the edge - there was a bit of a shenanigans at the checkout and I missed out when they first went up for sale but after a delay of a few days Eric and Tom at Cubic-dissection tried again and miraculously my cart was already full and the checkout happened seconds later...Phew!

Her Majesty's Customs and Excise kidnapped it for quite a while and I had a very nervous wait on my hands before a ransom demand came via the Royal mail which I happily paid to receive my toys. Much to the disgust of "she who is thinking of lighting a fire with my 'kindling'", I also received one of Eric's Improved One Piece Packing puzzles - which remains unsolved after over a month.

The photos don't do the puzzle justice - I have never heard of Waterfall sapele before and wondered what it meant. It's just about possible to make out in the photo at the top what looks like ripples in the wood and this is what marks it out as a waterfall variant. When held in good light, it is simply gorgeous. I had read the review by Brent Hessel and he awarded it the full five Sinatras and then I read my surgical friend, Steve's gushing Dr Seuss opinion, which meant that I had to start on this one straight away.

Looking in the keyhole, it looks like he has made a set of internal pathways for the pins of the key to interact with - I did wonder whether he might have made a sort of inverted wooden Revomaze. Of course, with any lock puzzle that comes with a key, it is obligatory to try the key in the keyway and turn. Will something unlock quickly that way?

Key turned and...nothing happened
Just look at the waterfall markings in that!

Of course nothing will happen when you turn the key! In fact, it turns only about 40º and in the wrong direction. Time to investigate further. There are not supposed to be any moves that require banging or force or gravity which helps because when turning the puzzle over and over, there are quite a lot of interesting clanking noises inside and sometimes not any clanking noises...odd!

It will come as no surprise that there are magnets in this - the pins of the key clanked onto a steel wire puzzle that was sitting on my armchair next to me. In fact when I pulled the key off the wire puzzle one of the pins came out - yes, its a teeny tiny spoiler to show it but not much of a spoiler so I will show it:

Magnetic pins - what are they for?

This gives the puzzle a HUGE number of extra possibilities - time to put the key back in with the pins removed and...NOPE!  What about moving the pins into different positions and orientations? Aha! Interesting things happen inside except I cannot tell what is happening. There is clanking and clinking inside but nothing changing externally. It doesn't take long to realise that the hole on the key is useful for something and then there are even more possibilities which produce more completely incomprehensible internal changes - I love it and I am stuck!

Several weeks go by in which I systematically try almost every possible combination of pieces, orientations and directions possible with no progress. At some point in that period, I work out what combinations produce what noises most of the time but at other times there are some really big noises in there and I think Eric is playing with me. Earlier this week I find a thing which causes something externally to happen and after that little buzz of excitement, I am stuck again.

I chat to the genius that is Derek Bosch and during a few evenings of discussion he tells me that he manages to solve it! OMG, I am so thick! He gives a little innocuous hint and I realise that Eric has been an evil bastard and pushed me into doing something stupid in the full knowledge that I will do that something again and again and again. Eric knows I'm not terribly bright. Derek's hint is very meagre and it still takes me nearly an hour to work out what he is getting at and I see the amazing misdirection that has been designed into the puzzle. It required not only a configuration change but also an interaction in an unexpected way to produce a movement that I wasn't expecting - brilliant! Now if that gives you any real clue then you also are a genius because I can barely understand that paragraph and I wrote it.

Having used Derek's meagre clue, I have ,ade progress and I continue to try all the things I had done before all over again with the box configured differently. As usual, I have clanking about and no further movement. But this time I think I know what is going on inside and want to try something extra. The problem is I am missing a tool to do that extra something. Now what? Maybe of I can...oooooh...Aha! Now that was a clever piece of design and with a little fiddling and some rather fine dexterity, I make a move. Solved! There's no real clue in the next photo but don't look if you really don't want any information at all.

I found a coin and a signature

This explained some of the noises inside but not all. Somehow something didn't feel quite right. That last unlocking move had been very clever (especially in how it made me use what I had already got) but there was too much dexterity involved and Eric very seldom designs puzzles that require luck or dexterity. Time to think© again. What did I have? What special properties did it have? Could I use it differently? OMG - YES! I tried the last move again but differently and there was a little wobble and resistance before a click and I sighed with delight!

This Sequential discovery puzzle box is a masterpiece - both in the craftsmanship and the woods used to make it beautiful but also in the attention to detail in the design inside. Every single step has been designed to be hidden and require experimentation, discovery and thought before revealing its' secret. This is simply wonderful and a candidate for my top 10ish of the year in 2020. This year has been a car crash so far but tremendous puzzles like this have helped take my mind off the awful goings on around the globe.

Where's My Hammer?

Where's My Hammer? by Dee Dixon

No! I have not taken leave of my senses and decided to use forbidden tools on a wooden puzzle! Today we have a surprise guest blog post from a new friend who I have met at a couple of the recent Midlands Puzzle Parties - Michael Quigley seems to have gotten sucked into the hobby hook, line and sinker and not only has he spent a fortune on lots of new and expensive toys, he's joined us at puzzle meetups, but he has also managed to get himself cajoled into writing something for my silly little piece of Internet! I am very grateful to him for writing up on a puzzle that I don't own and technically cannot justify buying because (horror) it's a box and we all know that I don't collect boxes!

My Covid-19 infection has begun to settle, thank goodness. Last Tuesday, I finally felt like this damn thing was not going to kill me! My progress is slow - mainly now my symptoms are just being very quickly fatigued and with minimal effort. I'm back to work tomorrow which is going to be rather interesting (especially as my first day is doing emergency surgery) - here's hoping that it's not as bad as I'm expecting. Thank you everyone for your support and thank you to Michael for helping me with a blog post. Over to you, mate...


Like Pavlovian dogs, there are certain trigger words that have many a puzzler salivating on command: puzzle box (Ed - nope, not my thing!), sequential discovery and exotic woods to name just a few (Ed - drooool!). So when Dee Dixon released Where’s My Hammer? – a sequential discovery puzzle box, handcrafted from exotic woods, the frothing mouths of the marauding metagrobologists caused a spike in humidity that was lucky not to ruin the very boxes they coveted.

Beautiful wood!

Professionally known as DedWoodCrafts, Dee Dixon has been producing decorative boxes and puzzle boxes for many years in his spare time.  Often tested on friends and family it was the production of a prototype box that led the tester, who was unable to open the box, to exclaim “where’s my hammer?” and the box’s name was born (Ed - was he an orthopaedic surgeon?).
Dee has started to mass-produce a few designs and selling via Cubic Dissection, Where’s My Hammer? was the first of these to be released on there.  The release didn’t last long however with all copies selling out rapidly and leading to Dee’s Blinded II box set for their Cubic Dissection release at the end of June. (Ed - after a little "mishap, this is due to go on sale on Monday 29th June).

The box itself is a hefty piece of wood, which has a weight and sturdiness to it that makes you feel like it is up for a fight. That is not to say it is an ugly box, far from it, it is a lovely crafted box adorned with a plethora of fancy wooden panels, many of which I can’t identify.  It is a tactile puzzle, which is lucky owing to the amount of time I had to handle it. On to the solving experience…

Now I don’t have lots of experience solving sequential discovery puzzle boxes but I thought long and hard and realised that there must be a thing or two to do before the lid comes off.  Instantly disregarding this I try and open the lid to feel that it has some give but nothing much else.  There are a few rattles from within and I start tilting the box from side-to-side trying to uncover its secrets.
At this point my other (much better I’m told) half looks at me.  Usually this means “your toy is making too much noise, go and play in the other room” but this time she asked if she could “have a go” (Ed - gasp! A wife that puzzles? Maybe some wife-swapping is in order? Whack! Ouch!). Here I was stuck in a conundrum, whilst I want to show willing and involve my NPSO (non-puzzling significant other) in my hobby I don’t think she really understands the unwritten rule (someone should really write a long list of rules down somewhere – say on a Facebook page) of the puzzling communities “no spoilers”.  Meaning that the second she found anything I was going to be told.  Luckily after 5 minutes of her playing she was no further along the solve process than when I had handed her the box. Relief!

Any tools here?

My first few minutes were a little more fruitful and without too much trouble I was able to gather together a collection of tools and pieces (at this point I wasn’t sure which was which) before grinding to a halt. A long halt. I tried everything I could think of using everything I had found. I even tried putting the box all back together and going through the solve process thus far in the hope that I would have enough momentum to propel me to the next stage of the solve… but to no avail.  I once read that thinking© helps, so put the box away for the night and tried this approach the following night and the night after that until finally I made my breakthrough.  At this point I should mention that one of the things I was trying was correct, I just wasn’t trying that thing correctly! The final steps came quickly to leave me joyful, relieved and amazed at this wonderful box. I’d say there was only one step towards the end that I wasn’t a great fan of but everything else about the solve was a joy.

In total, and depending on how you count these things, there are probably between 7 and 10 steps for the total solve. There is nothing hugely revolutionary in the construction of the puzzle or mechanics used but the build quality, design and aha moments of this puzzle mean it is a great one to try.  I’m certainly looking forward to sharing this box at the next puzzle party I go to and if my patience wears much thinner I’ll be sharing via the good old Royal Mail before then.  A super box from a new designer that is definitely worth getting hold of.

Thank you Dee for the production of this box.


Thank you Michael,  for sharing this with the "group" - I am very grateful for the effort you put in and a new voice on the blog! Hopefully we will hear from you again before long!

I am back to puzzling and have even managed to solve a few things whilst I have been off work - I am looking forward to regaling you all with tales of acquisition and utter stupidity over the next few weeks and maybe even a puzzle success or two!

Do take care of yourselves in these trying times! I have noticed that the virus has been very much on the upsurge again in parts of Europe and is close to being out of control in much of the USA - be careful, keep socially distant - there is absolutely no need to congregate just now. Masks (and other face coverings) may help protect others from you and certainly don't do you any harm. Your "freedom" should not be significantly impinged by wearing a face covering - think of others!

It MUST Be a Box if...

1. It has bread in it and...
2. I cannot solve it without help!

Juno's Slammed Car

Junichi Yananose is an evil genius! He produces wonderful beautiful prize-winning puzzles and absolutely adores winding me up! There had been a rumour of a sequential discovery puzzle from Juno for quite a while and I was given advance warning at least 2 months ahead by Yukari so that I could save up and the moment the notification email went out from Juno and Yukari's Pluredro store , I immediately shot to the website and in the middle of anaesthetising for a rather long boring operation, I surveilled, I thought, I hesitated at the not inconsiderable price and I came to the conclusion:

Who am I kidding? Of course you need this in your collection! Juno has never ever sold a dud yet!

Duly ordered before the op was over, I waited a week for it to arrive and then after paying Her Majesty's hostage ransom, I finally had this wonderful wooden sculpture in my hands.

The detail is fabulous!
Obviously a fair bit of CNC work here.

I set to straight away with the cat on my lap and immediately made a nice discovery...which led to another discovery and another and another. This was great! Both me and the furry boy on my lap were fascinated at all the pieces. So much so that I had to tuck them under my thigh to stop him running off with them. Like most cars, there is a bonnet to open (that's a hood to you Yanks) and a boot to open eventually as well (that would be trunk!) There are also things to be done that you really shouldn't do to a real car (unless you like expensive bills from the garage) then, of course, when you open the inside of the car there are all sorts of interesting things inside...

They fell out 'guv'! Honest! I didn't break your car!

So, in an evening, I had first a detached wing mirror, a bonnet, a number (license) plate, a spanner (wrench), another wing mirror and a battery... This car is going nowhere fast! Here I got stuck for the rest of the evening.

The following evening, I had one of those "Danlock moments". This is the decision where you want to do something but you really are not sure whether doing it is a good idea, or whether it might get you into real trouble! It is always embarrassing emailing a puzzle craftsman to tell him that you have lost something inside his puzzle and can you send it back for him to extract it? After a few minutes of contemplation, thinking© and failing to find an alternative, I did the necessary move and it did nothing but it wasn't stuck inside thank goodness! What if I... BINGO!

I was into the next stage and I had a few more pieces and some very interesting places to use several of those pieces. Here I got stuck...for weeks and weeks and weeks! On FaceBook I saw with dismay that many of my puzzle friends were finishing their puzzles and were delighted with what they found. I kept at it and found something interesting but it didn't help me.

This puzzle has lots of holes and small parts and even my blind puzzling friend, Ed, solved his! Aaaargh! Why could I not do it? I had thought it was a sequential discovery puzzle and I am supposed to be just better than rubbish at those. Apparently, I was wrong...the other puzzlers were all revealing a cavity and inside a bloody loaf of bread (not one covered in blood!) which showed exactly why I couldn't solve it! I CAN'T solve boxes for the life of me! I got a hint from another FB friend, Jay which showed me another feature of the new area but helped not one bit in progressing. Then Ed suggested I start to multitask (those of you who have solved it will know what this means) and I tried that for a while. Now, I am a proper bloke! Not covered in tattoos, I have a rubbish brain that cannot do more than one thing at a time - I struggle to walk and breathe at the same time so this final phase of solving was going to be tough.

I tried for another week and was laughed at by several guys for failing! I'm used to that as it happens to me all the time at the MPP. I was asked to think why something that might be unnecessary might be present and I could not come up with an answer that helped...at first. But the more I looked at it, the more something occurred to me and I tried something new...

AHA!

The gleeful shout earned me an evil glare from "she who was getting pissed off at me whining about being rubbish" and "she who had started asking me why I buy stuff I cannot do". Suddenly I had the full realisation that:

1. It's a box (the loaf of bread is proof)
2. I am completely rubbish.
3. The puzzle is 100% brilliant!

Juno, you ARE an evil genius! The torture was both horrific and wonderful at the same time. I am not into S&M in any way but I loved the torture here!

We have a cavity and a rather stale loaf of bread!

I can see why Juno won the Jury Grand Prize for the Slammed car at the IPP. It is amazing! I am slightly horrified that a whole bunch of puzzlers were able to solve it at the IPP in just a few hours but they are all much better puzzlers than me.

At last, I can move onto some new puzzles that might have arrived recently - hopefully, Mrs S will allow me to live long enough to try.

I cannot wait for more puzzles (of all types) from Juno! This is one of the reasons that I keep buying, playing and writing! I love it! This is not available any longer. All 120 copies sold out quite fast so you will need to wait for one to come up in an auction - it is well worth buying when it does.

I Am So Bad at Boxes!

Yes, it's a box and it doesn't look too difficult!

I am sure that the majority of you will recognise the box pictured above and you will all laugh at me when I say that I could not open it! For those who don't immediately recognise it, it is a burrset made by the Doctor of Wood, Eric Fuller. A few months ago he released a bunch of these in different woods and due to work pressures, I was not quick enough off the mark to get one of the more gorgeous sets. However, I was just able to buy a copy of the Cherry, Ash, Walnut and Birch set just before they all sold out and have to say that I am not in the least disappointed. It is simply gorgeous even in the more mundane wood choices. Eric has put all of his usual magic into the manufacture of this set - the joinery is simply perfection itself and it looks beautiful. The lid lifts off to reveal a lovely ordered set of burr sticks which have been perfectly engraved with their piece number for selection according to the booklet of challenges.

27 beautiful burr sticks plus a "filler"

How many burrsets does one need? This is slightly embarrassing to answer - at the moment, I must say that at least 4 is the correct number!

The "42 piece burrset" by Jerry McFarland - aka the Caramel Case
314 solid burrs as well as many many additional holey burrs! Plus Jerry added an extra stick

The Ultimate burrset - by Jack Krijnen
637 challenges varying from Level 1 to level 8

The Level 5 burrset Mr KY Wu
162 possible level 5 assemblies

Eric had made this set using the exact same pieces as the Ultimate burrset which I already had above. So why did I buy it? Apart from being unable to resist Eric's work, this was named the Pen-ultimate burrset because it had been modified. The ultimate set was based on sticks made from 2x2x8 stock. The extra length on each stick made the assembly challenges quite a bit tougher in places as the lateral movements during the solution can be quite restricted. For this set, Eric had created the burr sticks from 2x2x6 stock and to enhance the puzzling the set had been analysed by the amazing genius that is Ken Irvine (check out his brilliant new blog here).

So having established that I already have more six-piece burr challenges than I will ever be able to solve (have I told you all that I am rubbish at assembly puzzles?), the next question must be where is that booklet of challenges for Eric's set? Yes, I asked that too! I had not actually read the full description of the item before clicking buy and only after it arrived did I realise that this Burrset was also a box. Apparently, there is a hidden drawer in the box which contains a booklet of challenges - hence this is a box too. It is very well disguised but when looking and feeling the box closely it is obvious where the hidden drawer is and of course, it is locked tight. So no puzzling until I can open the box...GULP!

I take out all the burr sticks from the set and admire them and search for hidden mechanisms inside...NOPE! Then I realise that stick 0 and the red stick are both solid and hence one is superfluous...or is it? Eric would not just put an extra stick in for nice packing in the box. After all 28 sticks pack as a nice 7x4 array but if there were just 27 sticks then that could easily be nicely arranged in a 9x3 array and not need the extra stick. Plus, why is one made from a different (and rather gorgeous) Padauk piece? It's pretty clear by the presence of a magnet embedded in it that that is critical for unlocking the drawer. There must be a hidden mechanism that requires the use of the magnet. I set to exploring what I could find with this magnet and there were several very nice Aha! moments. I found hidden magnets, I found that things could be done by using magnet on magnet and there I got stuck! For ages and ages! All over the internet, I saw puzzle friends opening their drawers and starting on their burr puzzling and I couldn't begin. My howls of anguish spread wide and I was encouraged by others to continue and not over-think it. The puzzling continued...but not with success.

Eventually, Eric was on FB and saw that I was on-line. He sent me a message and asked what I had found and could do. I gave a hypothesis of what else I thought I ought to be able to do and he indicated that I was correct...but my set would not do that. I was sorry to inflict pain on Eric but his response was one of absolutely superb customer service, he told me that in my set I obviously needed a stronger magnet and the following day he posted out a replacement key-piece (no extra charge at all). A week later I received another stick with a MUCH stronger magnet embedded in it. I immediately put it to the test and the much-expected movement that I had been unable to perform with the smaller magnet was now easy for me. So I did it and tugged on the drawer and...and NOPE! Aaaargh! As I said, I am RUBBISH at boxes. Yet again, I spent several evenings with my usual game of doing the same trick again and again and again and, like a mad man, expecting something different to happen at some point. Of course, it didn't and I still could not play with my burrs! Eventually, I caved in and asked Eric for a bit of help, wondering whether there was another issue with my burrset (it is very common amongst us addicts to state that if we cannot solve a puzzle then it must be broken - that gets stated many many times at the Midlands Puzzle Party).

Eric confirmed that there was more to the opening than I thought and gave me a particular but not descriptive clue which I (surprisingly) understood but could not immediately follow through with. He then said something key:

"Remember that I like to make things look like they don't move when they do 🙂"

Within a few moments of that I responded:

"Holy shit! Just found it! Damn! That's well hidden!!!!"

I have to say that I feel that I got my money's worth out of this puzzle and that is before I even got to play with the burr sticks!

OMG! At last!

Now I was able to explore the set further. There was a nice Cubic Dissection logo sticker in the booklet and the booklet itself provided the full analysis that Ken had made of the Ultimate set with shortened sticks and also including the assemblies that do not end with solid burrs:

There are rather a large number of challenges to work through:

• The Ultimate burrset with stick-length of 8 had 535 unique solutions with voids whereas the Penultimate set here has 708 - that alone will take me most of the rest of my life!

On top of this, there are an enormous number of other assemblies possible which will provide interesting puzzling - potentially another 20,322! Homing in on the slightly more challenging ones, Ken's analysis states that there are 3,479 piece sets that require a minimum of 2 moves and a maximum of 3 moves to remove the first piece, 51 sets that require a minimum of 4 and a maximum of 5 moves for the first piece and 3 sets that require 5 moves.

Not only is the analysis an amazing and very complete piece of work, but it has also been beautifully set out in the booklet and, as long as you have good eyesight (a problem for us "older" puzzlers), then it is a work of art as well as a fabulous puzzling resource:

At last! Very small print but gorgeous and a lifetime of puzzle challenges in there! Don't tell Mrs S!

Finally, I have been able to challenge myself to assemble something. As you would expect from Eric, the burr sticks fit together absolutely perfectly! It is a pleasure to play with this set - I will assemble a few and then it will be stored for my retirement when I have a whole lot more time on my hands.

A burr assembled and the Cubic dissection sticker proudly stuck on the interior of the lid

---

Still unsolved - probably a box!

Finally, as proof that a puzzle is a box...Juno's Slammed car which has now sold out after it won the Jury Grand prize in the design competition in Japan, was sold to me as a Sequential Discovery puzzle which I adore. However, Juno insists that it is also a box which we have established today that I am truly awful at solving! He says:

"The puzzle has an internal cavity and it is also categorized as a puzzle box. To make the definition of the puzzle clearer, we put a loaf of bread in the cavity and it helps you to realize the goal of the puzzle."

The loaf of bread is another dig at me after George Bell stated that a puzzle is a box if you can put a loaf of bread in it and there have been several of Juno's puzzles where he has had a joke at me with this. I received my copy of this a couple of months ago and have watched in amazement as everyone has solved it around me (including my completely blind friend Ed) and I zoomed off to almost the end of the challenge and have been stuck there for weeks. Yep! It is definitely a box - not because of the bread but because I am completely unable to solve it! I will keep on working on it and hopefully before the year is out will have opened it - some puzzles take me months or even years of effort! Thanks, Juno!

Robert Sends a Twofer Which Scares Me!

The Incredible Stickman Dwemer Construct Puzzlebox

Well, here I am running late! Mrs S has been away most of the week visiting the outlaws and, as is usually the case, she times it for just when my workload goes through the roof! I think she does it on purpose! Instead of having plenty of time, home alone, to play with all my toys and write a nice blog post, I have been up to my eyeballs in work and even spent all day yesterday writing our on-call rotas! I only just finished up this puzzle this morning after doing all the chores that "she who scares the bejeezus out of me" had set for me to do before she gets home.

Yes! It's a box! And No! I was not tricked into purchasing it! My cardinal rule is if I have the opportunity to buy a box from Stickman (aka Robert Yarger) then I just hand over the cash! Mrs S doesn't know that but let's not tell her, shall we? This particular box was offered out quite some time ago and it took Robert a good bit longer to complete the design and make the batch than expected. The wait was more than worth it! It really adds something to my little collection:

My Stickmen (including a Stickboy and a Stickman apprentice) - plus a few other beauties.

The Dwemer Construct Box is named after an ancient lost race in the Elder Scrolls, well known for their skills in crafting mechanical items.

This incredible construction is big...REALLY big and pretty damned heavy too. It has a handy top rail which is perfect for carrying it about. Every time I played with it I lugged it out of the display cabinet and then put it back after I had got stuck - Mrs S would not tolerate it being left lying around in the living room!

Looking at it closely it is clear that a huge amount of work has gone into it and pretty much all of it is crafted from wood with only a few well place brass screws holding components together. Lots of things turn and can interact with other pieces in mysterious ways. Not all are visible either - requiring a fair bit of deduction/guesswork during the process. It is very quickly apparent how the lid is attached to the box and what is required to allow that lid to be removed...the issue is making it happen! None of the appropriate parts are able to move in appropriate directions as they are blocked by other parts of the puzzle.

I worked on this, on and off, for a couple of months and kept getting stuck. They always come with a wonderful spiral-bound booklet but I try not to use that unless absolutely necessary. My stubbornness has left my Stickman Perpetual Hinge unsolved for more than 5 years! There are four phases to the solution of this puzzlebox and I got the first within a day or so. Step 2 took me over a month and then the others the same again. Some of the moves require a bit of a leap of faith..."Am I really supposed to be able to do that?" Eventually, (yes I did peek at the booklet just once) I had the release mechanisms all aligned correctly and I gently lifted the lid off to see why the puzzle had been making so many rather loud rattling noises whenever I picked it up and moved it from display to living room:

Inside is a bag of bits - including a screwdriver!

I said this puzzle is a Twofer! Robert did us proud with this one and this explained the delay. Not only do we have a beautiful large complicated box to solve but we have all the pieces inside to construct a second challenge - "two fer the price of one"! In fact, this was very nearly a "threefer" - he has ideas for another challenge but did not have time to make it - it is possible that the third challenge is made available sometime in the future (obviously we all expect to pay for it if it happens). After the solution to challenge one is a rather startling page in the booklet:

OMG - I'm gonna have to be brave!

This morning I spent a happy hour or so playing with my bag of bits and the screwdriver - this left me with a rather horrific worksurface with even more bits than I would have believed possible:

OMG - I have locked the cats out of the room! I can't afford any mishaps here!

The quality is simply stunning - everything is so perfect. The instructions for the disassembly and new assembly are step by step and quite easy. I have a small issue with an alignment of one piece in the new challenge that I am waiting for an answer from Robert but I suspect I have made a schoolboy error.

Even seeing the construction process for the second challenge amazingly does not give away how to actually solve it! I know how some of the pieces interact but have no idea how to open the box.

Probably another 3 months to solve this one!

I'll keep you informed of my progress through challenge two.

Now Mrs S has just arrived home from Edinburgh and I had better finish this and pay her some attention - if I don't then we may not make it our 25th anniversary and I won't be allowed to keep the Berrocal Goliath that is my present for lasting so long. Plus, I actually think I could do with a little bit of relaxation for the rest of the weekend - what little is left!

I Bought a Box by Accident

But I Am Definitely NOT Disappointed!

Hydrant

Last year I was perusing the IPP design competition page and immediately spotted the Hydrant puzzle. There are a few designers and craftsmen whose work is recognisable immediately and even with no written attribution, it was clear that this was the work of my friend Stephan Baumegger (his extensive work can be seen on his Facebook page, Puzzleisure. Having watched him move from burrs to turning wood and then quickly combining the two pursuits, I was delighted to see something truly gorgeous. The stated aim on the design competition page was to "Find the fire hose" and I did not pay much attention to the Slocum classification of 2.1. See here and here for more information on puzzle classification systems
In retrospect, I should have looked to see that Slocum 2.1 means:

Trick or secret opening puzzles (Japanese trick boxes, puzzle boxes, etc.)

Now as you all know, I don't collect puzzle boxes (except Stickman boxes) unless there is an additional feature to the puzzling but, in my defence, I didn't pay attention. I actually thought that the puzzle might have been one of Stephan's amazing shaped burrs like the Droid which I have so far failed to solve despite trying on and off for several years or Thor's hammer which took me quite a long time and the fabulous Tokamak which he gave me in Paris.

Droid

Tokamak

Thor's Hammer

Once the IPP participants had deliberated and pronounced that they really loved the Hydrant (it was one of the "Top Ten Vote Getters", I contacted Stephan to ask if he was making any more of these for sale and could I buy one? He said "Yes" and "Yes" but I would have to wait as they were going to take a while to make. The intense puzzling that was done at the IPP showed him that the mechanism needed strengthening and this was going to take some design and workshop effort. Of course, I was happy to wait for a nice and fully functioning puzzle which arrived many months later in February 2019.

I was not disappointed - it is GORGEOUS!

I played with it after taking some photos and realised that it was definitely not a burr. Apparently, Stephan had initially tried to make it as a burr aiming for the shape of the American-Darling B62-B5 Hydrant. His initial ideas produced a burr with level 29.6.4 (total 43). But he had problems building it accurately enough.

Looked impressive but did not come to fruition

Having failed to manufacture a burr but still being fixated on the American hydrant shape, Stephan moved to an alternative puzzle type and started the old fashioned way, just like his fantastic Moulin Rouge puzzle...with pencil and paper:

Cropped so as not to give anything away

Prototypes were built and sample materials sought - the critical part of this puzzle was the end...finding the firehose. The part for this needed to be surprising and special as well as critical to the function of the design. It would appear that Stephan bought a LOT of novelty English Mustard over the last year! If you've ever seen one of those trick opening jars with exploding snakes inside then you will know what is in the hydrant.

At the IPP it became apparent that some of the internal parts of the design were not strong enough to stand up to repeated solving attempts. Eventually, after discussion with Diniar Namdarian, a 3D designed and printed part was produced complete with full plastic hydrant puzzle exteriors:

They look good in plastic

But despite this now fully functional and robust model, Stephan is still primarily a wood craftsman and he really wanted to make it in wood again with the new improved mechanism. He had perfect designed and printed parts as templates and this allowed him to build the new series as he had initially dreamed but as a hybrid Hydrant. In this new series, two hidden parts are made out of wooden filament.

Simply amazing!          Taken from the Puzzleisure FB page

As soon as Stephan showed off the pictures of the new batch, I knew that I was getting something beautiful and very well made.

I realised very early on that this is not a burr - but did not think any further what it might be. There are lots of tactile pieces to play with and some move a bit, some move a lot, some wiggle ever so slightly whilst others are stuck hard. There are no external clues and pushing and pulling all available parts does not provide any real clues. Wiggling one protrusion does have an odd effect on another one but this did no more than confuse me. By pure chance I worked out the first step - it is quite simple but took me a fair while to find. At this point, I can see inside and can see.....absolutely nothing! Oh well, more fiddling blind. At this point, I realised that 2 (or even 3) parts were able to interact in an initially random way but the more I did it the more I could find a pattern and set up an image in my usually empty head. Quite a few things were happening but a crucial something was eluding me. Time for bed that night and back to it the following day. One of my few fortés is that I do tend to keep at things for a very long time. I did this here and my mental picture got better and better until I had a VERY big Aha! moment. Now I really could see inside and see something useful.

Further interaction of pieces is needed but despite seeing inside and suddenly gaining even more insight, I was still unable to go any further. At several points during this next phase, I felt that everything I needed was visible but still the solution eluded me.

Work intervened and I was only able to spend short periods on the puzzle in the evenings but that last step was impossible - had I broken anything? Keep at it you fool! Suddenly, last Thursday, I had an epiphany - how could I have missed it? Suddenly, I had found the firehose which I can confirm is a critical part of the puzzle:

Of course, I would not give anything away!

Next, I had to work out the exact sequence of steps needed to go from a complete assembled puzzle to extracting the hose. There are quite a few distinct steps which must be carried out in the correct order and very precisely over 3 distinct phases. Resetting the puzzle is fun too as you must know those steps well enough to perform them in reverse. Brilliant!

When Stephan told me that it is not a burr, I assumed that it would be a sequential discovery puzzle and I was wrong. There are no tools to be found in this. So what type of puzzle is it? I thunk about it and have to conclude that Stephan has designed, made and sold me a puzzle box! I am not disappointed about it at all - it is a fantastic puzzle. It is made out of 44 different parts and is a triumph of ingenuity. I cannot wait to see what else he comes up with.