Hanayama Cast Hexagon

Cast Hexagon

I've spent a rather stressful Friday, Saturday and Sunday down in London spending many many hours sorting through my late mother's apartment and putting stuff for recycling, for charity and for the rubbish. She basically was a hoarder and never threw anything away.....EVER! I have found every birthday and Christmas card she ever received - not just from me and my brother but from anyone. There's every letter I ever sent her dating right back to 1985 when I went to Edinburgh University Medical school. I've found more shoes and handbags than even the present Mrs S has! Whack! Ouch! Yes dear, I know you will have to catch up! How many suitcases and holdalls does one woman need? What-is-more they're all full! I've made huge headway but it's a little heartbreaking to sift through somebody's life and be so brutal about what is kept and what is chucked/given away. I daren't even start on the photographs - there are 10s of 1000s of them! So I'm experimenting here - I'm taking a quick break from sorting to write a post for you! I have no wifi and only my iPad tethered to my mobile phone and using an app that is not the most intuitive to use. So here's hoping that we get something for you to read. After that there might be a wee drinkie coming my way - I think I've earned it!

Ooh! 3 new goodies!

It has been quite some time since I blogged about any new Hanayama cast puzzles - mostly because I haven't received any recently but a month or so ago I was contacted by a gentleman called Nic Picot who has started a new on-line puzzle store isn't the UK called Hanayama-puzzles.co.uk. Initially he didn't have the very newest ones in stock but promised that he would have. So I placed an order and waited. He got back to me a few weeks ago with the news and a bit of PayPal shifted. Three new toys suddenly came my way and I gleefully posted a picture on my Facebook wall and the Puzzle Photography page. I didn't want to zoom through them so I paced myself - I'm still struggling to get anywhere at all with the latest Cast Padlock. I am pleased to say that they were all well worth purchasing and I can vouch for the efficiency of Nic's site and his honesty. So if you are in the UK and wanting to buy any of the Hanayama puzzles have a look at His site. In North (or even South) America you are probably still best dealing with PuzzleMaster.

In the Interim.....

Turn the Plug

This week has also been another rather busy one for me and not helped by the fact that Mrs S went gallivanting back up to Edinburgh to visit her family for a good few days. Now whilst this has decreased the risk of a Whack! Ouch! it has also meant that I have been left a list of chores and some DIY to do. It also means that the usual household stuff that she takes care of is left for me. This has left me rather short of puzzling time.

But in the interim I received something from Shane which I just could not resist! This is the Turn the Plug puzzle and is one of what he calls his interval puzzles i.e. they fill the gap between his major creations and in his words are not intended to be taken seriously and are just a bit of fun. I had heard about this one a while ago but never actually seen one in the flesh/wood before. It's a pretty hefty thing and for "just a bit of fun" it is beautifully finished. Apparently Shane has been chatting to a number of master craftsmen recently and been gaining knowledge about how to finish wooden puzzles. This particular puzzle has his old method and is stunning - Lord knows how beautiful things will be when he tries a new improved method! I am sure that Mrs S will not want this particular puzzle on show because of it's rather unusual hardware but it will HAVE to go on the sideboard in the dining room along with my now embarrassingly extensive Hales collection.

Mike is a Saviour - Presenting the Tetris Octagram

This last week has been a really busy one for me with late finishes and not much time for puzzling. On top of all that, it was time, yet again, for me to write the consultant anaesthetists' on call rotas for our hospital. This is 3 separate rotas utilising 27 people with all their standing requests, one off requests as well as annual leave. When I left work on Friday night, I took with me 18 sheets of A4 paper printed double sided with all the information as well as ensuring that the various emailed requests were forwarded to my home email. Writing the rota this time took me a whopping 7 hours in front of my 24" iMac and absolutely exhausted me - I was in no fit state to solve anything or plan a blog post afterwards. To top it off, today I am on call myself and could be called in at any moment - so for this reason I am eternally grateful to my Hawaiian correspondent, Mike Desilets, for sending me a review during the week and taking the pressure off me - he didn't even know that I would be in need. This means that, if I don't get called in, I can do some of the DIY that I have been putting off for weeks - "she who must be feared" has been threatening me with another Whack! Ouch! if I don't reseal her bathroom this weekend and fix the mortice lock on the door too! So without further ado, I hand you over to Mike:

Jonathan Berindei’s Tetris Octogram. Euro in the background for scale. Looks small doesn’t it?

Aloha Kākou readers,

When you hear that greeting, you can always expect more puzzle talk from the islands. I’ve been in a writing mood lately and I find that its best to indulge the urge before it passes. It’s impossibly hard to write when you are uninspired. Thankfully, I have been greatly inspired by a few new puzzles recently, one of which I’ll cover today. This post was also stimulated by a comment on my last post from Steve (aka Boxes and Booze), which reminded me that my esteemed editor and publisher Kevin (aka The Mad Puzzler (Ed - I'm Puzzlemad not a mad puzzler! or am I?)) does not generally collect certain puzzle types—boxes for example (Ed - just trying to save myself from complete financial ruin). I was happy to realize that my post filled a gap in the blog. Thinking about it a little more, I recalled that packing puzzles also constitute a distinct minority at Puzzlemad (Ed - I just can't seem to do them). There are packers on this blog, just not very many relative to the abundance that exist. Happily for the blog, I very recently played with a great 2D packing puzzle that I think is Puzzlemad material.

I give you—the “Tetris Octogram”—designed, made, and sold by Jonathan B from his workshop in northern California. This very attractive version of the classic octogram is an original design. I know this because Jonathan told me so, and also because I searched high and low for similar designs and found almost nothing. The Tetris Octogram is, of course, a polyomino packing puzzle, a class which has deep historical roots. Octograms are so named for the fact that the packing space measures 8 units on a side. Other than that, there don’t seem to be any strict rules. From a design standpoint, one simply selects a set of polyominos that are challenging to pack and aesthetically pleasing. Jonathan has selected a diverse set of 13 polyominos for his puzzle consisting of 1 heptomino, 1 hexomino, 7 pentominos, and 4 tetrominos.

Pentominos are traditionally the most popular pieces for this type of puzzle (and arguably the most popular of polyominos period), but I think adding the larger hepto and hexo pieces, as well as the unassuming tetros, was a good choice. I would go so far as to claim that this is a completely unique arrangement. Of course, with all the possible combinations of polyominos available there are surely many hundreds of unique sets to choose from. All I can say is that this particular set works, both aesthetically and from a puzzling perspective. Jonathan’s original inspiration was a children’s polyomino puzzle, from which he drew some of the pieces. He then selected the rest to complement these such that the final design was “equal and proportional”. Another influence was Tetris, hence the name of the puzzle. There are four tetris-derived pieces in the puzzle, also known as tetriminos to us GenXers (Ed - that would seem to include me).

Polyomino breakdown for the Tetris Octogram.

When I first considered buying the Tetris Octogram, I was attracted to the unique construction and materials but wasn’t terribly concerned about the puzzling aspect. Polyomino packing seems somewhat mundane compared to the many highly innovative and cutting edge puzzles that populate the blogs. However, I must say that this puzzle has really grown on me. It is not easy to solve, nor is it terribly hard to solve. But it is always fun to solve. And replay value is literally unlimited. There must be thousands of possible solutions (making solving highly manageable) but it is highly unlikely that you will take the time to memorize any one of them. So each play is basically a fresh start. In typical packing fashion, you’ll get within a hair's breadth of the solution and then have to backtrack and rearrange until you can create the space you need. It’s a very satisfying puzzle with a good balance of frustration and release.

My admittedly limited research produced only one other Octogram design available on the market. This is an all-wood Octogram of quite different design (meaning different choice of polyominos) made by the Kiwis at Puzzlingworld. Their version is composed almost exclusively of pentominos and one lonely tetromino. At least two separate programmers have analyzed the Puzzlingworld Octogram, coming up with 16,146 unique solutions (excluding equivalent orientations). This gives you some idea of the order of magnitude of the solving possibilities for the Tetris Octogram.

The Tetris Octogram has its roots in the octograms of the late nineteenth century, particularly the checkerboard  puzzles. The objective there was to fit a set of polyominos into an 8 x 8 unit square such that a regular checkerboard was created. The component squares of the polyominos alternate red and white. The earliest of these, dating to the 1880s, was the Sectional Checkerboard which included 15 polys: 9 pento (2 of which are duplicated), 2 tetro (both same), 3 trio (all same), and 1 domino. This was apparently a VERY popular and long-lived parlour (Ed - corrected to the correct spelling with a U in it!!) puzzle, spawning well over 300 designs (see Slocum and Haubrich’s Compendium of Checkerboard Puzzles, or better yet, just go here).

3/16th inch iron goodness.
Laser cutters are fine, but I want a plasma cutter!

As mentioned, the appearance and materials of the Tetris Octogram puzzle really pulled me in and ultimately made me hit the “buy” button. You can see from the pictures that this is a very substantial puzzle; the exact antithesis of the jewel case packer. The packing tray is a 9.5 x 9.5" slab of ¾" oak and the puzzle pieces are 3/16" thick iron. Jonathan cuts the pieces with a computer controlled plasma cutter (Ed - drool!). The polyomino designs are created on the computer and then fed to the cutter. Note that the polyominos are very nicely rounded, making them pleasant to handle and easy on the eye. They also have a nice fit in the tray—not too tight, not too loose. Overall, it’s an excellent piece of modern craftsmanship. The puzzle looks as good in person as it does on the web page, which is not always the case these days. Given its stout construction, this puzzle will also make a great multi-generational heirloom - I’m quite sure that it will outlive me. And unlike the more obscure puzzles I own (and cherish), I believe my non-puzzling descendants will appreciate it and keep passing it down. For myself, I intend to bring this puzzle back to the family lake house (a very modest one, don’t get the wrong idea) in Vermont and play with it before a crackling fireplace, warm cup of tea in hand. Thanks Jonathan.

Hrmmmm.........?

Only three Tetris Octograms have been made to date and I am the happy owner of number three. Jonathan is not a professional puzzle designer and he does make a lot of other stuff with his machines, so I asked him if this was just a one-shot lark or whether there are more in store. I was very happy to learn that he has plans for more designs, and in more sizes. I’ll definitely be keeping an eye on that. This was a great freshman effort and I’m excited to see what else he can come up with in this rather unusual medium.

You can find the Tetris Octogram at Jonathan’s Etsy store (unfortunately Jonathan has stopped producing puzzles. Price is $88 US (Ed - he doesn't seem to ship to the UK unfortunately) and he  makes them to order (pretty quickly in fact). This is not cheap, but you are getting a very high quality item of unique design. It is most definitely good value in my book. Jonathan spends upwards of three to four hours making each puzzle, plus material costs. Do the math. It’s a good deal. 


Ed - Wow!!! That looks absolutely stunning - whilst I am not a huge fan of packing puzzles because I struggle to do them and because there is just too much trial and error involved, this looks perfect. Hopefully someone will convince Jonathan to ship outside of the US so others can enjoy this great looking puzzle. I really will be interested to see what else he comes up with.
Thanks to Mike for letting me off the hook and for producing yet another stunning review - if you think you can also produce something equally informative then contact me on my Contact page.

Gone to Bermuda......

and it ain't no holiday!

Bermudaminx - Venus is supposed to be the easiest!

I've actually been struggling to write a blog post for you this week - I have been busy at work and not actually been able to concentrate on puzzling very much. Then I caught the lurgy on Friday and felt like hell. In fact I felt so awful that I couldn't even find the energy to travel down to Birmingham and attend the 22nd Midlands Puzzle Party (sob!!) and meet up with all my mates! I must be pretty ill to miss the chance to meet the only people who actually understand and even sympathise with my madness!

The only puzzles that I have managed to spend time on have been to try a new sliding piece puzzle designed by the incredible Laszlo Kmolnar and not get anywhere at all with it and then in desperation to return to a bit of twisty puzzling. I have a bit of a backlog of twisties that I need to get through before I order some more. My friend Martin has recently lost his job with one of the city councils in England and to try and help support himself, he has set up a twisty puzzle store in the UK offering very good prices - I wanted to catch up with my backlog before ordering a few extras. If you are buying twisties and you live in the UK or Europe then have a look at what Martin has to offer - he's very reliable, in fact you will probably know him from his YouTube channel.

Quite a long time ago I decided to buy the Bermudaminxes and they arrived en mass requiring stickering which can only be described as a truly soul destroying process. But eventually I had all eight of them ready to go and even scrambled one:

Eight scary minxes - the scrambled Mercury has been like that since I got it!

I scrambled the Mercury which I just picked at random and tried to solve it for several weeks but every time I started to make progress, I made a mistake and needed to start again and then after a while I realised that I didn't really understand how I was going to go about it. It was too difficult for me! OMG - I had bought all 8 of them and they weren't cheap! I put them down for a while and promised myself that I would get back to them soon......ahem! it seems to have been nearly 2 years since then. I am slightly ashamed to admit that I have actually carried a couple of them with me every day in my workbag for the entire time and never gotten around to attempting them. Every time I picked them up I shuddered and put them down again. I know, I know, SHAME on me!

Eventually when I realised that I had a list of new ones to order from Martin, I decided it was time plus, believe it or not, I hadn't received any new wooden beauties for a while and the disentanglements that are backlogged in my queue are proving impossible:


I have put these aside for the moment and have decided to go back to the Bermudaminxes for a "refreshing change". I got advice from Jamie a while back for which order to begin them and he chose the Venus as a suitable start point. This may be the easiest but LORD! my head hurt for quite a lot of the week and Mrs S exercised the laser burning stare and the Whack! Ouch! many times due to my muttering and effing and blinding every evening.

Changing my Thought Processes in the Cubozone

Volantis

Last week I posted on my New Additions page some lovely pictures of some gorgeous toys that I received from Yavuz Demirrhan. Yavuz lives in Turkey and despite struggling to obtain good quality equipment he manages to produce quite a few lovely puzzles and has very recently opened his own Etsy store. It was originally named Creacubes but apparently someone else has reserved that name and forced Yavuz to change it to his current name of Cubozone - seeing as so many of his gorgeous creations are cubic, I think the name is quite apt.

My first purchase from his new store was some time ago and the delivery was very delayed because first of all Yavuz sheepishly admitted that he had taken orders for more puzzles than he actually had made (of course I didn't mind waiting - I know that quality takes time and is worth waiting for) and after he had made my lovely new toys the British customs office held them for 3 weeks before releasing them to me! I had seen them at the last MPP and was getting desperate to get my mitts on them! When they did finally arrive, even Mrs S commented on how beautiful they were!

Make sure you spell it 'Porperly'!

Strong Box (left) and Strong Box 2.0, by Joe Porper. Rubberized Master locks not original, but useful to prevent scratching. US Quarter for scale

Aloha Kākou readers. It’s been a good long while since I’ve interrupted Kevin’s regularly scheduled posts with one of my own. The man deserves a break, wouldn’t you say? Though if you’ve read this blog for any length of time you’ll realize that he is quite mad for puzzles, to put it mildly (Ed - tell me about it!). Taking a break from puzzles or blogging about them is probably a form of torture for Kevin. But it will be brief. He always comes back with a vengeance after these little interludes (Ed - in fact I'll add a little puzzle to the end of your post Mike).

Today I’d like to share with you a special item in my collection. It’s special because it is very well made, it’s clever, and it was not intended to be a puzzle, at least in the traditional sense. Also, it is metal, and we all know that high quality metal puzzles are hard to come by. So I was very excited to come across these two items about a year or so ago.

Standing on his own

Cocoon

How many favourite South African boys does a puzzler need? Up until now, I really thought that I only needed one! That of course had to be the MAIN man, Allard! Just go and read his review of yet another Stickman box to see how brilliant he is. Of course I also have a favourite South African girl but don't tell Allard that I think his wife is amazing - she puts up with even more of this puzzling madness than the present Mrs S (his collection is considerably more awesome than mine) and Gil even seems to do it without the use of the Whack! Ouch! I actually thought that would be quite enough favourite South Africans but I was very wrong. Johan Heyns has definitely become another favourite of mine!

Some time ago I discussed the Really Bent Board Burr designed by my mate Derek and how I managed to entice Johan back into puzzle making after a very long gap. The RBBB was fantastic and it would appear that he certainly hadn't lost his touch. He has gone on to produce quite a number of beauties for me this last year:

Canuck

Wish Cube

Kruiz

Last year Johan unfortunately lost his job and considered turning to puzzle making to earn a living and of course I wanted to assist him in any way possible - we cannot have too many puzzle craftsmen around. He touts his wares on his Facebook page and in the Puzzle Photography group so you should definitely keep an eye out for him there and see what is coming in the future.

A Couple of VERY Complex Worry Beads

Crosscut

I had seen the Crosscut burr pictured above a long time ago in a Burrtools screenshot when Dan Fast (aka CrazyBadCuber) showed off his new design. I am amazed how quickly he has picked up the skills to design in Burrtools and has produced some absolutely fascinating ideas. A few have already been produced by Eric Fuller and Stephan Baumegger but this is the first to be made by my favourite Czech craftsmen. I got very excited when Jakub showed off one of the first and I immediately sent off an email expressing my interest.

I was delighted when it arrived earlier this week and it is just as special in real life as it was on Facebook. As you can see it is absolutely stunning having been made out of Cherry and Wenge. All the edges are beautifully bevelled and all the pieces fit together so perfectly that you cannot feel an edge between them.

I received it at the end of a VERY long day and after placating Mrs S about yet another delivery and having a bite to eat, I was too tired to do any more than idly fiddle with it. I took a photo and posted it on Facebook and a while later Dan asked whether I had solved it yet - he claimed that it was an easy one! Yeah! Right! He doesn't remember that I am really not terribly bright.

Diagonal Moves are Great!

In fact they are bloody marvelous!

3 Gorgeous packing puzzles from Brian Menold and Laszlo Kmolnar

You will need to excuse any editing errors in this post - I have been desperate to improve my writing methods to make them easier to achieve and less work. The Blogger on-line system is not particularly responsive and I have been trying to move to a plain text editing system using Multimarkdown in a special editor called Scrivener which allows me to keep all my thoughts and plans etc in a single document and organise everything without having to worry much about formatting and having the distraction of the web browser open at the same time. It also means that I have full copies of all my blog posts outside of Google’s system if I ever wish to move elsewhere (for example SquareSpace looks fun as does a self hosted WordPress site). So I am trying out an entirely new system here and my grammar and spelling may wander off whilst I learn new methods - just bear with me.

Today’s topic is based on some gorgeous puzzles I received this week from both Brian Menold and Eric Fuller - all the puzzles that I will discuss today are made considerably more confusing and definitely more interesting by the fact that they do not require simple linear movements. The addition of diagonal (and also rotational in one puzzle) really up the ante on the puzzle. They may well make the puzzle harder to manufacture but it is more than worth it for such a fantastic end result.

The first beauty that I am going to mention is the third in a series from Brian Menold and designed by the genius that is Laszlo Molnar (also known as Lacika Kmolnar) - I reviewed the first 2 in a blog about think Outside the box. In that post I described how I spent many hours struggling to find first the special fancy move that would allow the crucial piece to fit in the box and also the particular assembly of the pieces that would make it possible. Brian emailed to let me know that he was planning on making the third in the series - called No Holes Barred by Laszlo and asked whether I would be wanting it and if so would I want it in the same woods as the previous 2? He said he had just enough of those woods to allow one more puzzle to be made - I absolutely lurve the combination of Marblewood and Holly so I immediately emailed a definite yes back to him and I knew that I didn’t have to worry about the scrum that occurs when Brian posts an update (pretty much every time I get a puzzle stolen out of my shopping cart before I manage to login and pay). I was blown away by the look of Brian’s new additions and so bought more than I anticipated - Mrs S really did not approve when they arrived and the laser burning stare was utilised to maximum effect as well as the whiplash tongue.

No Holes Barred - Marblewood and Holly

The No Holes Barred puzzle was offered in quite a few gorgeous woods and they all got snapped up very quickly. Brian said this about it:

The latest packing puzzle brain teaser from Laszlo is cool! He told me he thought is was easier than Triagonal Agony but after three days of playing with my prototype I had to get back to work and ask him to send me the solution! This is another of his Aha! moment puzzles.

I was very much hoping for a puzzle that was a bit easier than the Triagonal Agony! That one took me weeks before my Aha! moment. Of course it had to be the first one I tried. The puzzle had arrived with the pieces outside of the box and all shrink-wrapped together - no chance to cheat by having a quick peek at the solution. I tipped them out and took the photo above and had a play that evening with a cat on my lap whilst watching TV with the “first wife”. Needless to say I failed to solve it when the little bugger (cat not wife! Whack! Ouch! Sorry dear!) romped off with one of the pieces in his mouth. That night I put it in my bag to take to work for the next few days (just in case I got a chance to play).

The key feature of this puzzle is that there is a half block stuck to the box which severely limits the way the pieces can be inserted and also one of the 5 identical pieces is differentiated by having a block diagonally cut away. The first thing I did was try to work out what the special pieces might allow and then see if I could utilise that special feature. There are several possibilities and I obviously would need to try them all out. Then I had to “think outside the box” again - doing it in the box would make it far harder. I failed for the first couple of days and one evening, I had a late finish because of an educational evening I had to attend. Whilst waiting in the Ivory Tower for the meeting to begin, I had a spare hour and under the watchful eye of one of my colleagues, I proceeded to investigate systematically. There are 4 or 5 possible assemblies that might fit in place which can be doubled by rotating the cube through 180º. There was one that looked particularly interesting because it potentially required a ver fancy coordinate motion to work. I tried to get this to happen for about ½ an hour making loud clacking noises and both amusing and annoying nearby colleagues who were struggling to concentrate on more academic topics. Eventually I had to give up on that particular approach and look elsewhere. Just before the meeting was about to begin I had my Aha! moment and all of a sudden I knew how it worked - I got a round of applause from my bemused colleague and a sigh of relief from several others. It’s amazing how annoying I can be to many other people and not just Mrs S!

Finally solved - now it can be put away on show

Another puzzle I couldn’t resist from Brian was a design by Gregory Benedetti - Little Slide Plank. My version was made from Red Oak and Black Palm. I have previously bought a few coordinate motion puzzles from the amazing Vinco (aka Václav Obšivač) - but haven’t bought any coordinate motion puzzles for a while. This new one by Greg was a good price so it had to be added to my shopping cart:

Mrs S says all my puzzle are just cubes - she might actually be right!

Brian said the following about it:

I made this coordinate motion cube just for fun. The three pieces sometimes take a bit of pushing and pulling to get moving but it is not that difficult to take apart. And with only three piece, reassembly is quite easy too. Only a few made of each as these were made from stock left over from another project and a bit of a last minute decision.

Scary movements!

Picking it up in just the right places causes it to literally slide apart and then the pieces drop on the cat who is sleeping on your lap:

He didn't seem to mind!

Good view of the pieces

He didn’t even wake up this time! Putting it back together is not difficult as Brian said but it makes a fabulous worry bead to play with. What a bargain at $19!

Finally today I have to show off yet another amazing design by Gregory Benedetti. The New Old School Puzzles were designed in time for last years’ IPP and Greg worked on Eric to make them in wood. Eventually the convincing worked and Eric said yes. I reviewed the first two of them here and was completely bowled over by the amazing design and production. When Eric said that he planned on making some more in the series then I knew that I had to have them - on the predicted day I sat refreshing my browser repeatedly until the update went live. Another 2 were available and I snapped up both - I did want some of the others but after splashing out with Brian, I had to be careful. I really didn’t want to give Mrs S another excuse for a Whack! Ouch! Pictured below is the Crenel puzzle which is the number 5 in the NOS series:

Just another 6 piece burr? I don't think so!

It is gorgeous in Purpleheart and looks just like a standard 6 piece burr except that no standard linear moves will work. The hallmark of this series is that odd diagonal movements are required and many are coordinate motion. This means that the standard Burrtools application cannot solve it for you.

Eric said this about it:

Crenel is the fifth of the NOS designs and is difficult to disassemble and assemble. It has extremely unusual movements that will have you muttering under your breath when you take it apart, and exclaming admiration for Gregory’s genius when you reassemble. The peculiar back and forth gate movements are extraordinary.

The first thing I noticed was that it was much looser than Eric’s usual output but after playing with it I reckon that is required to ensure that everything slides properly in all the required directions. Literally after a minute or so you get an idea of the complexity of what is happening inside. Notice in that picture the diagonally oriented slots and cuts.

As I played, I noticed that there are several blind ends and even unexpected back tracking is required - this must be the “back and forth gate movement” that he meant. The disassembly is not horrifically difficult - and after a short while the puzzle splits into two halves. One half falls apart easily and the other needs further moves before you end up with this:

These must have been a nightmare to fashion!

Make sure you have noted which pieces belong where before you scramble the pieces as the reassembly from scratch is a real challenge. I absolutely loved it - it is my favourite of the series so far. The fourth one - Transfer (NOS2) remains unsolved - it frightens me to death! Every piece moves at the same time!

Of course I had to take a group photo:

4 seemingly simple 6 piece burrs - don't let the looks fool you

I really hope that Eric makes the others in the series - if he does I will be sure to throw my money at him again. I suggest you go to Cubic now - there seems to be a few of each of the NOS puzzles left just now.

I have made a video of the Crenel puzzle to show off the amazing movements to those of you who haven’t managed to get a copy and also if you have managed to disassemble it but not managed to work out the reassembly then the video may help you.

Hopefully I have convinced you that diagonal moves are great? Now I need to get back to solving puzzles with circular moves - Derek and Steve's last productions - Twiddle Dee and Twiddle Dum are causing me some problems! Twiddle Dum is in pieces and I cannot put it back together and Twiddle Dee just will not come apart! They are MUCH tougher than previous helical burrs.

Damn these are tough!!!

I hope you have enjoyed the post - if you do have any suggestions on writing methods and platforms then I’m open to suggestions. Just comment below or drop me a line via my Contact page.

Looking a Gift Horse (or Dragon or Lock or Wire Thingy) in the Mouth

It's a horse!

I have a very good puzzle friend in the Far East who is very good to me and always on the look out for puzzles that he thinks I might enjoy. We email often and I am constantly amazed at the sheer breadth of his puzzling knowledge and skills. I also am amazed when he sends me the occasional package. These packages contain puzzles that he has found for me or managed to obtain from his own friends. He never accepts payment for them so these are always gifts. Occasionally he asks me to source puzzles for him and I buy them and send them his way (which I am always delighted to do) but the majority of the giving is to my advantage. I consider myself a very lucky man to have such a great friend. Mrs S doesn't favour him so much because a lot of the puzzles are jingly and you all know how she hates that - the laser burning stare is terribly painful! I have told her this time that I can never look a gift horse in the mouth - this time literally.

Some time ago I received another package of puzzles from him which included some rare disentanglement puzzles and some new designs from Wang Yulong. The first one that I attempted was The Horse by Binary Arts - produced in 1985. I had noticed this many years ago and tried a time or two to get one on ebay but always missed it by a few $$. Knowing how much I love N-ary puzzles, my friend managed to get me this copy and I have to say it is lovely. In fact it is pretty enough that it sits on show next to me on my shelves unlike my other disentanglement puzzles which get shoved into a drawer. I love that the string in this is a piece of leather just like the reins of a real horse. The aim, obviously, is to remove the loop of cord and the wooden block which impairs movements. There are a few moves that need to be done in the right sequence - it is a lovely satisfying thing to do. Even Mrs S said it was a pretty one.

Well trained horse - not run away with the reins off