String Or Wire? Or Both?

Should They Go On Display?

 

Concertina Wire by DDK made by Mr Gao - bought from Aaron Wang

A wonderful gift from Dale

Due to having a horrendously busy week with operations that went on and on (and on) beyond the normal working day, I haven't had much time to play. It was Mrs S' birthday on Friday and I felt that puzzling probably ought to take a second place that day. As a result. this article is a real short one and more philosophical than many of my posts.

At the MPP last weekend, I had a really nice chat with Dale (who gave me a copy of one of his old exchange puzzles from IPP 25 in 2005). Dale is one of the few puzzlers I personally know (apart from Dick Hess) who really appreciates disentanglement puzzles. Over the years od attending the MPPs I have worked many times on these fabulous challenges with him as we both seem to get stuck on the same types of thing. 

Lots of puzzlers seem to be attracted to the simple (and occasionally not so simple) interlocked nail puzzles but very few seem to really collect or solve the more complex wire puzzles and even fewer of the group love the puzzles that include string in them. Dale and I discussed why that might be as well as whether they should be displayed or even look good on display.

Whilst we worked together on a puzzle that he had been stuck on (it was a wood and string version of the classic ball and chain puzzle made with extremely tight tolerances), I had to admit that I did not display any of my disentanglement puzzles at all. It is difficult to be sure but I think I must have about 400-500 disentanglement puzzles and almost all of them are stored in Ikea storage baskets. The ones that I have solved are kept in the garage (I have a catalogue reminding me which ones are in which box) and a whole bunch of unsolved ones are in a wardrobe in the house. Only the one at the top of the post is currently on display and that is not because of the look... even though it is quite attractive, it is only on display because I am still working on it. I have been trying to solve this masterpiece by DDK and made by Mr Gao which was sold to me as part of the 2025 releases by Aaron Wang.

I don't find the diagrams help me much!

Dale and I were interested in finding out why so few puzzlers are really into disentanglement puzzles and those that are tend to be less appreciative of the ones involving string. I don't think we were able to come to any real conclusions. I personally have been moving away from the puzzles that involve string (unless they are Chinese ring variants) because I find many of them impossibly difficult to solve and in many of them the solving process can end in a dead puzzle with an irrevocably knotted string. I have been very grateful that Aaron's string puzzles for the last 3 or 4 years have included a quick reset mechanism. This is particularly useful when a knot occurs but also with the Chinese ring type puzzles, the sequence of moves is often so very complex that it is a frequent occurrence for a puzzler to lose concentration and either end up right back at the beginning without realising it or caught in a dead end and due to the huge number of moves to get there, it is often better to use the quick release and return to a known correct earlier position than to backtrack and get lost.

Circuit board I (also by DDK and made by Mr Gao)

Many of the non-Chinese ring type puzzles that have been produced over the last 5 or 10 years look fantastic (which is why I couldn't resist buying them) but require some incredible brain power to work out a solution. The Circuit board I above has a really short loop of string which would make you think it shouldn't be that difficult to wind it off the wire grid. However, I have been playing with this for a year as well and can honestly say that I am no closer to the solution now than when I first started. Indeed, Aaron did rate its difficulty as 10+ but I think only the very best of disentanglement enthusiasts will be able to work this one out. I consider myself to be above average on this wire puzzles but the sheer complexity of these is making me more and more hesitant to buy more string based challenges. 

I haven't completely given up on the Concertina wire puzzle yet because it is still attractive enough to leave on my puzzle tray and I do periodically feel I am making enough progress to come back to it periodically. I think that most puzzlers would hesitate to attempt the Circuit board and only a few more would be attracted to the Concertina wire because of the knowledge that it is a Chinese ring puzzle.

Grenade V by Shuai Chi made by Mr Gao

Having complained about string, I have to sheepishly admit that the new breed of designers are producing wire puzzles that are also immensely more difficult than the wire puzzles that I bought many years ago from Livewire. Many of those were incredibly tough but the wire from the likes of Aaron and Shuai Chi are several orders of magnitude more difficult. The Grenade series (there are currently 6 of them) look complex but not horrific but believe me when I say say that they are the very pinnacle of pure wire challenges. I have managed to get absolutely nowhere with them in a year of trying. At least I am not caught in an un fixable position but nothing I try seems to advance. 

Despite all of this apparent complaining, I adore these puzzles and have ordered a whole bunch of the 2026 releases (although only one which has string in it). I fully expect that most will be beyond my abilities and they will not end up on display but I will still have a lot of fun playing with them.

Now, Having spent a good while with the Concertina Wire and Dale's Elusive Chain Puzzle sitting on the table in front of of me whilst I type this, I have had an idea or two on how to progress so I had better get back to them now. Excuse me...

Counting to 4 in the Correct Order

Number Blocks

Mrs S has been away for over a week visiting the Outlaws. She returned home yesterday whilst I was at work and this meant a  flurry of cleaning up my mess (with dozens of puzzles lying all over the house) and then making the place look vaguely presentable and doing a bit of my assigned DIY over the last few days. This has left me knackered but at least I have managed to solve a few puzzles to blog about. Today I have a lovely puzzle that was great fun and is absolutely perfect to take to work for "normal people" to play with. It's a little bit of a shock to have to finally admit after all these years that I am "not normal"! 😱😱

Recently, I had a little chat with Tom Lensch via email when I was seeking a copy of his award winning 4 Pac puzzle designed by Hajime Katsumoto. This had been very highly rated by Allard as well as appearing a few times in the EPP book. Of course, Tom always has a bunch of creations on the go at any one time and sometimes has a few toys lying around from previous batches. He talked me into purchasing a new version of the Melting Block puzzle (it has a bunch of gloriously coloured woods which I couldn't resist) as well as the Number blocks by Goh Pit Khiam.

New Melting Block

4 Pac

I immediately fiddled with the 4 Pac and realised that this was going to take some serious working out time which I didn't have straight away and suspected that the New Melting Block might be totally beyond me, so I started on the Number blocks. 

This gorgeous puzzle was created and entered into the IPP design competition way back in 2015 where it won a Jury honourable mention award. It has been reviewed by Jerry Loo who really enjoyed the solving. I am not entirely certain how I missed out on this one (I suspect that I ran out of budgeted funds or had been treated with terrible bodily harm by "she who frightens the bejeezus out of me"). I already have the Arrow blocks and the Road blocks already and very much enjoyed them. 

The aim of the puzzle is to convert one to orientation to another:

            1    2                1    2

                           →

            4    3                3    4

There are also several other orders that you can attempt but they are quite a lot simpler (although still a fun challenge). Obviously this cannot be like the traditional 15 puzzle - there is no gap to use to slide the pieces around with. Obviously something has to come out first and I discovered that by turning it over to look at the reverse of the tray: The 4 has no protrusions and then the other pieces can slide. Simple I thunk©, now I slide them into the correct position and reinsert the 4 piece. Of course, our good friend Pit would not have made it that easy - the sliding does move things about but you always get blocked no matter what direction you try. I guess that I had better take all the pieces out?

Now you can see why the puzzle isn't that simple

Maybe the tray needs to be rotated before trying my simple reinsertion? Nope, too easy - the tray just has a slot under the frame all the way around with no obstructions. Time to Think© again - ooh that's painful!

The challenge is not terribly difficult - I think it must have taken me about two hours over a couple of sittings. The lovely thing about this puzzle is that there are 2 very distinct Aha! moments before you can solve it. The first of them I came to quite quickly because whilst I'm not terribly bright, I am not entirely stupid! The second Aha! moment took much longer. I seemed to get fixated on trying one particular thing which was not going to work but I tried anyway...multiple times. Doh! Eventually I had my breakthrough and could count to 4:

I can finally reach 4!

I then brought this wonderful challenge to work where I tortured a few ODPs, nurses and medical students who needed a break from my barrage of information. It was really quite fun to watch them all go through the same process as me. The got fixated on the same problems and eventually had the same Aha! moments (occasionally with a little nudging) and were all delighted with the challenge.

This fabulous puzzle is well worth obtaining and sharing with friends if you can find a copy.

---

Dale Shows Passion Before Wedding Vows are Allowed

Passion Puzzle by Dale Overy

I have enjoyed Dale's company at many MPPs over the years. He sits quietly solving stuff with ease and enjoys showing off new finds and new creations. He has a particular penchant for disentanglement puzzles which is a delight for me because so few puzzlers seem to really love them. I had purchased a few little toys from him at the last MPP and promptly hidden them when I got home so that Mrs S did not see me moving a bunch of extra toys into the house after a day away. With so much work on my plate, I promptly forgot them and only found them again whilst "she who makes murder hornets fly away in fear" was away.

The Passion puzzle may look very familiar - it looks rather like the classic Wedding Vows puzzle which I reviewed in 2015. The aim is to move 1 bead across to the other side alongside its' lover. Of course, the bead will not fit through any of the holes in the puzzle. There are a number of similar looking puzzles that I have reviewed in the past but they have had very different solution paths. It is definitely not a hugely tough puzzle compared to the monstrosities that I have acquired from Aaron Wang or some of the worst of the sadly missed Livewire company puzzles. But the challenge is really quite fun and, dare I say it, probably suitable for beginners or non puzzlers.

The fun thing for me is the realisation that this lovely challenge is one step before the Wedding vows. You definitely need to go through the Passion puzzle stage before reaching the Wedding vows:

Very clever.

I still have a couple of others to play with from Dale that will keep me jingling and annoying "she who can freeze a lake with just a look". Whack! Ouch!

Type 4 Zig-zag design by Dick Hess

I have no idea what it is called - it's in Czech