Jan Sturm's Collection Includes Some Amazing Puzzles

Mammoth

I have previously mentioned that I managed to get some early samples of the latest puzzles from Jan Sturm's new catalogue. I had gotten these from a friend who has been in contact with Jan recently but I now know that the usual "Puzzle pusher" has begun to get a few in stock and hopefully if you ask him very nicely he might let you purchase a few. For a full view of the puzzles in the catalogue have a look here at an online version (a paper version is also available too).

Some of the names of the puzzles in the catalogue (no, I don't have the whole lot!! Just a chosen few of them) are a bit of a mystery (as you will see later) but the puzzle pictured above is pretty obviously named Mammoth because of the overall shape, complete with tusk. The aim obviously is to remove the loop of string from the puzzle and then replace it. I would suggest if you do buy this one that you take a quick photo of the start position as it is easy to go back to what you think might be the beginning but is subtly incorrect. During my working on this I had to reset it quite a few times and the picture really came in handy.

This was the first of the group of puzzles that I actually tried whilst on call on a Saturday. I had a good registrar ploughing through the emergency/urgent work so I sat in the coffee room to supervise from there and set to on this puzzle. I started with that one because it was an interesting shape and rated only 4 stars out of 5. A quick glance for taking my photos also led me to think that it would not be that tough - I was sure that I saw a path that could be pulled through. My first fiddle revealed that a) it was not a simple pull through (of course Jan would not release anything like that) and b) there were 2 possible start directions. What I had been fooled by was those very sharp U shapes with rings in them - they have been VERY accurately made to allow the string to get inside but NOT pull through. In fact if you pull too hard then it gets wedged inside giving you a bit of a headache! During that day I did have to go into the operating room and work and was unable to finish the puzzle but over an hour or two in several sessions I discovered that there are a LOT of moves in the solution to this puzzle. My usual back and forth approach was not helpful as there were just too many moves to keep track of and one ring looks very like another after a while.

The nursing staff and waiting surgeons were very bemused periodically to watch me trussing up an elephant with a piece of blue string but by now pretty much the whole surgical side of the hospital knows about my "little" habit. Just before leaving at the end of my day there, we were all sitting waiting for the next case and I was chatting and idly fiddling when I noticed a colleague's jaw drop. I looked down and was a touch surprised to see the string in one hand and the wire in another:

Solved it! Lord knows what I did!

He actually asked how I did that (he'd seen me playing on and off all day) and I sheepishly had to admit that I had absolutely no idea how I had solved it as the last few moves were done without paying much attention. In fact, maybe I should try more puzzles that way? I might solve a few more! I took it home that evening and after eating with Mrs S and showing off how brilliant I had appeared, I proceeded to take my life into my hands and attempt the reassembly whilst watching TV with her in the evening....I failed and also got burned by the laser burning stare! The puzzle was even more challenging to reassemble and again took me almost a whole day. Checking my photo, I knew I had got to the start position and then tried again. Remember that no puzzle is truly solved until it has been done at least twice and proven to be understood. The second time was a little quicker and led to a real appreciation of the complexity and beautiful quality. I might actually be tempted to say this is a 5 star difficulty and not the proposed 4. I'd be interested in thoughts from any of you lovely readers.

Prince of Frogs

Yes the above puzzle is called the Prince of Frogs! I think this has been a translation error because the Czech name is Rybí Princ which should translate to Prince of Fish. The shape looks to me like a whale with its' blowhole spraying and of course, even if it is a mammal, what else could you use to call a whale? It looks like a prince of the fish family. It is a fairly simple structure and with a difficulty level also of 4 stars. The aim is to simply remove the ring from the top.

There are a few features of this shape that immediately made me recall previous puzzles and I had plans for what to try before I even picked it up. The puzzle did not take me very long and I would rate the difficulty as 2-3 stars only unless you are an absolute beginner with disentanglement puzzles. Despite the ease with which I solved it, it is actually one of my favourites. The sequence of moves to remove that ring are simply beautiful in their elegance! I love it.

Simply wonderful if not difficult.

Finally today I am visiting a new twist on a very old idea. Way way back in the mists of time I wrote about the Cast Menace/Devil which is a real classic puzzle which still fools many newbies to this genre of puzzles (I have a colleague at work who has owned it for over a year and is convinced that it is impossible). It was made tougher for Allard's exchange a few years ago and sold by Wil later as the U-twins. Well Jan Sturm has taken that basic shape and put a number together to make:

The Cloverleaf

Cloverleaf is very attractive and VERY jingly which Mrs S did not like. It has been rated as 4 stars in difficulty (I would say 3 stars) and if you don't understand the Hanayama 2 piece version then don't even attempt this one. The same move is required only more often and with a bit of fiddling to get the correct part of the pieces to reach properly. I knew what was needed having solved the original and very quickly had this:

Pieces of 2 Cast Devils or 1 Cloverleaf

Reassembly is where the real challenge comes in. Try not to pay too much attention to the positions where pieces are removed and then you get far more of a challenge later. The return to the beginning took me about an hour because I struggled to get the overlapping pieces in the correct orientation and the final link was a real pain in the A! It is a reassuringly solid puzzle and if your life is not endangered by a homicidal wife then I can definitely recommend it.

I look forward to getting a good few more from Jan's catalogue. He has implemented ideas from quite a few new designers and has really made them beautifully using very high quality steel wire and string. This has reminded me that I still have quite a few of Aaron Wang's puzzles in my unsolved pile - I must get back to them soon - I am falling behind!

Unintended Consequences of IPP and Puzzles Solved on the way

The dining room table held my IPP haul

Having been at IPP last week, you might expect me to have an extravaganza blog post for you today. I certainly would have expected it too! BUT there were some unintended consequences of IPP that have conspired against me and this will only be a very short post - I do apologise but it will have a few good photos.

First of all, IPP is fantastic for catching up with friends from all over the world. Most of these guys I only ever communicate with via Facebook or email and as you can imagine there's a fair bit of hand shaking and hugging that occurs and even the odd kiss (purely for the girls of course). I was very pleased to catch up with the spouses of Neil and Peter Wiltshire and of course am always delighted to receive a little kiss. However this time one of them (or maybe both) had transformed into Typhoid Mary and infected me with a rather nasty version of the plague! I have spent the last 4 or 5 days gurgling with mucus and annoying Mrs S with other various sound effects both day and night.

Mrs S was feeling generally peeved with me because of my very talented sound effects and the prodigious quantity of goo that was being produced so when she saw the amount of new toys that I brought back from IPP and the state of the dining room table after my unpacking, she insisted that I put things away quickly. In my fevered state I whined that I didn't have any space to put them away and so she marched into my study to see absolute chaos! My desk was pandemonium. You MUST do something about this NOW!

A panoramic view of the desk - worth clicking on to get a full impression!

I do have a few shelves with either sci-fi books or my popular science books on them and she has decided that these can go into boxes in the garage and this will leave me some more shelf space for puzzles.

Unintended consequence number 1 - I am reorganising my study!

Seeing my crestfallen face (especially as I was feeling fairly shocking at this time), she actually felt sorry for me! At least I think she did......I have never seen such a thing occur before so I may be mistaken.

Unintended consequence number 2 - I will be allowed another set of shelves in our newly redecorated conservatory! Yay!!! Maybe I can get some more puzzles to fill it?

Unintended consequence number 3 - she said that the puzzles in the dining room are quite attractive! I had better pack some more in there quickly before she changes her mind.

A panoramic view of the sideboard in the dining room - sorry about the odd distortion

Before I reorganised it all, I had to take a quick set of pics to record the current state of the collection:

They are packed quite tight but I know where they all are!

Lord help me if there's a little earth tremor!

She wants me to move the bottom shelf into a cupboard!

But the cupboard is already quite full!

The collection has also spread into the living room:

I think the lamp table looks lovely

Puzzles awaiting play!

She says things are too messy - she may have a point!

An animal collection - only one puzzle which is just not right!

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Puzzles solved on the way to IPP

Stake

A good friend of mine had managed to acquire a few new ones from Jan Sturm. I was offered the chance to join in with a purchase and....well you all know that I cannot resist a disentanglement puzzle or 10. I chose a few of the ones rated 4 or 5 stars on Jan's difficulty scale and they arrived a week before I went to IPP. I had to put a few in my bag to play with on the train to Paris. The first one was this Stake. The string loop was linked to the chain but not to the main puzzle and it looked initially to me to be quite tough. I sat down on the train from Sheffield to St Pancras and after we set off started to play. I was before 7am and I got a few very strange looks from my fellow travellers as well as the train guard.

5 minutes later.....

Well that wasn't particularly tough

There's a fairly nice little sequence to unlink from the chain and then unlink from the main puzzle but I would rate the difficulty of this one as 2-3 stars only. I solved it a few more times to be sure that I understood it and then put it away. Maybe I was going to be a genius at the IPP and solve everything in sight? I thus moved on to the next one - also 5 stars:

Paddlesteamer

This one is significantly harder! Despite having on obvious exit point, the circular loop within the body of the steamer causes the string loop to twist and ruins any quick solution plans. After about 20 minutes I had this:

Solved - no idea how!

The trouble with many of these puzzles is the solution route is impossible to remember and more often than not I have absolutely no idea how I managed it. In this case I took it apart and immediately tried to reassemble it but seriously struggled to get it back to the initial conformation - I had to rely on the picture on the packet to be sure when it was back. In the end, it took me another hour and almost the whole way to St Pancras station to be sure that I understood the puzzle and could do it repeatedly. There is a distinct 4 steps to the solution of this and I would agree that it is a 5 star difficulty level.

Cactus

Just before I got to London I attempted one final wire puzzle from Jan. This is called Cactus and the aim is to move the barrel to the other side of the wire. Needless to say, it is too big to fit through the wire. This puzzle was designed originally by Lambert Bright and called Saguarro (it was auctioned in Nov 2011).

The solution to this puzzle uses a basic technique that is common to quite a few puzzles that require you to move things from one side to another. Of course, I had no recollection of the techniques I had used before and so I needed to work it out for myself afresh. Part of the fun of having almost no memory is that puzzles always seem new to me and are a challenge each time I solve them. Don't anyone tell Mrs S please! With about 10 minutes of play I had managed this:

A fun little challenge!

This had got me from Sheffield to London and had entertained me on the way to the upcoming puzzle extravaganza!

Wish me luck rearranging my study - I will try to post some more pictures after I am done.

Bounty from the Midlands

Yesterday I attended the 26th Midlands puzzle party and caught up on puzzling, gossiping and the general teasing that always occurs when the bunch of us get together. Someone actually was hoping to meet the present Mrs S which I thought was particularly brave of them! They couldn't believe that I got away with what I write about her most weeks. I informed them that she never reads my drivel and that they were welcome to take her off my hands whenever they wanted! She even comes with her own shoe and handbag collection.

Having spent so much time puzzling yesterday, I feel that I ought to spend a little time with "the frightening one" today and will postpone the post I was planning on until next weekend. Instead here is a little summary of my purchases from the MPP.

The two highlights of the meetup was getting to see Laurie Brokenshire and Ethel again who was looking rather well considering all he has been through recently and also getting to meet the most famous puzzle pusher in the world, Wil Strijbos. I did purchase a few things from him (how could I resist?) the most important of which was his newest creation, the Revenge lock aka the Wanderer. Here's what he said about it:

Juno's Follow Up is very Different and Still Fun

Grooved Board Burr #2

Yes, it looks very like the beautiful board burr from Juno that I wrote about just under a month ago but it is different in several ways. Just a couple of weeks ago the follow up to the Grooved board burr #1 was released and after I told everyone on Facebook and on the blog about it, it sold out within a couple of days (I am sorry that you will not have a chance to buy it now except at auction).

Version 1 of the Grooved Board Burr was extremely difficult and had a very well disguised critical move that took me 3 months to find (and I am aware of others who have had serious difficulty with it). I could not resist buying version 2 because 1) I love a series of puzzles, 2) I cannot resist beautiful wood and 3) I wanted a similar fun challenge.

No 1 was fulfilled as this is number 2 and Juno has mentioned the possibility of a 3 and 4! Number 2 is obvious - this thing is stunning! Juno has made his own plywood boards with Bubinga and European Beech and added Bamboo dowel pins. It is a gorgeous rich colour with amazing grain in all the layers. It is the same size as the previous edition at 86mm across each side but quite obviously much heavier (I did not realise that Bubinga was so dense). The immediately obvious difference from number 1 is that all the outer surfaces are whole and no grooves are visible at this stage.

I set to one evening this week (I am seriously struggling to find time to solve things at the moment and only just solving something in time for the blog each week) and noticed very quickly that there are less dead ends but there is something very odd about the first few moves. The dowels are on the face of the boards and not the insides and the Burrtools grid was very odd! A normal 6 board burr is based upon a 1x4x6 grid for each board and version 1 was based on a 3x12x18 grid. I have not quite worked out how to model version 2 but I think it will need boards based on a 4x24x36 grid which fills me with horror as I consider a burr only complete when I have modelled it in Burrtools after dismantling it.

There is a certain rhythm to the early part of the disassembly and after the first section, I found a very wild move that looked like it would make the whole thing very unstable but oddly it held well together. I got stuck here for a while and this was the point that I realised that the puzzle was also a maze! A rather fun second section began next and even that is not straight forward - it leads easily to an almost but not quite solved dead end because one can scoot right past the correct turn without realising it. The Aha! moments with this are wonderful and not terribly difficult. After the ardour of the first puzzle in the series, it was actually a pleasant surprise to work my way through this one in just a single fun evening. Juno did think that this one was 10 (or even 100) times easier than the first and I agree...but it is still great fun.

Look at that maze!
If you look closely at the dimensions then you can see that this is not a simple "base 3" grid

I do hope that there is a number 3 in the series as the addition of grooves and dowels make for a very different puzzle to a standard board burr. As with everything made by Juno, they are all beautiful on display. I am so sorry that you can no longer buy a copy of either of the puzzles but look out for them in the various puzzle auction sites as they will come up for sale in the future I am sure.

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As for puzzles on display...after last week being forced to tidy up the desk, I took some new photos of the state of the collection. Things are much better arranged now - what do you think?

Starting on the left-hand wall of my study:

Vinco's, Eyckmans', Many MANY Pelikans and a Crowell or two and maybe a Vanyo

MrPuzzle, Many from Brian Menold, Many MANY Eric Fullers and an assortment of N-ary plus metal overflow

There appear to be a few of the newcomer Rex Rossano Perez on the desk behind the computer and a new one yet to be solved.

Above the computer and on the right side of the study:

Very special MrPuzzles, Assorted lovely interlocking puzzles (including some unique ones) and heavy metal!

Hand made twisties, books. a friendly Koala and interlocking cubes

I have a cupboard with a huge number of twisties and a pile of sequential move puzzles and an embarrassingly large number of wire puzzles from Jan Sturm and Aaron Wang:

I really MUST find a better way to display these!

Luckily Mrs S allowed me to expand into a spare bedroom and unlike Allard, I did not push my lovely wife into a garden shed!! The 3 display cabinets upstairs have some of my most treasured and beautiful puzzles as well as some rather special plastic puzzles that I don't want to pack into drawers:

These are some of the most spectacular puzzles I own from many designers and craftsmen.

Can you work out what they are and by whom?

Plastic, glass and disentanglement overflow

Mrs S seems to have allowed a few of the most spectacular (but not too huge) puzzles out of the puzzle rooms into the living room - I don't have so many there any more and my pile of puzzles I am working on is still an unholy mess on the floor but I think the living room looks like there's a puzzler around:

I appear to have a few K-cubes and Goliath...AT LAST!

The most gorgeous puzzles that Brian Menold has ever made

3 rather special cubes from Jean-Baptiste's Arteludes store - these were made by Maurice Vigouroux

I am rather chuffed at the beauty of my collection! I even have room for quite a few more. Whack! Ouch! Nothing is due at the moment dear...at least for now! 😉

Variants Revisited

I know many of you will recognise these pieces immediately - Hectix original

Mrs S has begun to mutter again about the number of puzzles lying around the house and seems to have developed a murderous look in her eye periodically. That terrible feeling of fear I get from her violent tendencies used to be limited to when she booted me in a kidney at night for snoring my head off. She always calmed my fears by asking whether I had to "breathe like that?" More recently, the feeling of incipient termination has worsened now that she has taken to booting me and asking me when I wake with a start, whether I "had to breathe?" After 28 years as a doctor, I am fairly certain that breathing is not optional and, despite her telling me I am just a vegetable, that I cannot photosynthesise.

Over the last week or so a number of additions to the collection have arrived and I have not had any time to put them into the crap heap which my study has become...again! Occasionally she hears me exclaim after my Aha! moments that one or other puzzle solves just like another. The murderous look reappears and she asks "why have you bought it then?" to which I have to reply that I could not tell until I solved it! She has also continued to ask me why I don't go back and solve my ever-increasing backlog of unsolved puzzles. I don't have a Louis like Allard has to solve all of his puzzles and so have to keep putting them down and returning later. The theme of today's article is on revisiting puzzles voluntarily or inadvertently:

Last week I was contacted by my friend Rob Stegman - he knew that I had been wanting a copy of the original Hectix or Hexsticks puzzle. A cheap Japanese copy had come up for sale on eBay and I jumped at the chance. I did not expect much for the price but was pleasantly surprised when it arrived quickly in a rather small box in the disassembled state and was much better quality than expected.

The 2 versions of the original 3M productions of the Hexsticks puzzle produced in 1970

I already had 2 copies of this puzzle in my collection given to me by a very very good friend and which I have not dared to disassemble partly for fear that over the last 48 years, the plastic might have become brittle and also because if I took them apart I suspected that reassembly might prove impossible - you all know that I am rubbish at assembly puzzles.

The Hectix/Hexsticks puzzle was discovered independently by both Stewart Coffin and Bill Cutler in around 1968 and Stewart patented it in 1973 (You can download the patent here). I have had these 2 plastic puzzles sitting within arms reach and never done more than admire them and be pleased that I had a nice piece of puzzling history.

When this arrived and I had reassured myself that Mrs S was not going to burn either it or me, I set to trying to put it together. As you can see it consists of 9 identical pieces and then 3 more with an additional notch. There was an obvious way to start and I got to the point of having 8 pieces in and 4 more to go. The next piece always proved impossible. Mrs S refused to lend me an extra hand and the cat didn't have the dexterity! Every time I attempted that final piece it would start to collapse and quickly became unsalvageable before dropping on the aforementioned cat who was less than impressed. This ridiculous state of affairs continued for several evenings and eventually the swearing got too much for Mrs S - she forced me to leave it alone for a while. Today it was photo taking time and I was determined to get it done for the blog. An hour of effing and blinding gave me a wonderful Aha! moment and I realised I had been going about it all wrong. Apparently, according to Jim Storer's site, there are 3 solutions - I will be going back to them to see why I had so much trouble.

Assembled - it only took me 5 days!

Now I am very happy to have 3 copies of this lovely puzzle. If you see either a plastic or a wooden one up for sale then don't hesitate, it is perfect for any puzzler.

I do have a copy of the Hectix revisited which I wrote about here and the Improved Hexsticks (from Bernhard Schweitzer) which I wrote about here. Maybe I should try them again?


and I am really not sure when I am ever going to dismantle this monster:

Hexagonal Porcupine

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Another Unexpected Puzzle Revisit

Sailboat

At the last MPP, Louis had brought me a few puzzles from Wil's stock to go through and buy if I wanted. There were a couple of extra wire puzzles from Jan Sturm and I took all that I didn't already have. The Sailboat looks remarkably familiar but also has some changes. It looks very similar to the classic Ball and chain puzzle which catches me by surprise every time I attempt it. It requires a very particular sequence of moves and if they are not done right then the puzzle gets very very knotted. You can see the similarity but also the subtle changes. I took this to work to show off and my ODP/anaesthetic assistant grabbed it whilst I was busy checking on the blood cell salvage machine during a case. She managed to get it knotted within just 60 seconds and my heart leapt into my throat! Rule number one - DON'T give a string puzzle to a newbie! I was delighted that I had not lost my touch on this type of puzzle - after I had grabbed it back I managed to undo her knot and then solve it too - all in just 5 minutes! Phew!

It's a very nice version of the classic - worth adding to the collection

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...And Another!

Snail-U-String - not the name from JCC. I don't know what it is supposed to be called.

A few months ago I received a batch of Jean-Claude Constantin's wire (and string) from Wil and had been failing dismally. Again after the MPP, I had gone back to a few for a fresh look. The addition of the U pieces to many of his latest puzzles really makes a huge difference to the complexity of the puzzle. It is almost like adding a Möbius strip to a puzzle. Eventually, after months of getting no-where, I had a little thought© which is a very alien phenomenon for me. There was a small hint of a similarity to the simply brilliant Russian Heart and Aaron's Möbius ring that I had reviewed here. Both of those puzzles have a common idea and as you can see they share a feature with the Snail-U-String above. The new features still make a difference but after another few nights of exploration my Aha! moment was complete and I had my 3 pieces:

I hope to God that I can get it back together!

It took me another evening to reassemble the damn thing but can definitely say that if you enjoyed the Russian Heart then get this one too. If you don't have either then go and get both I am sure that Tomas will be able to provide the Russian Heart for you.


I also received a few new ones as a gift from my friend Terry - I am most grateful and pleased that Mrs S didn't mind when I told her that I hadn't paid for them! They will be shown on my New Additions page soon. Don't tell Mrs S but there might be some more puzzles coming very soon! Whack! Ouch! too late!