Lean 2

During IPP 32 last year, Dave Rossetti presented another Stewart Coffin tray packing puzzle as his exchange puzzle. Numbered #255 in Stewart’s numbering scheme, this was isn’t made by Stewart himself, but by the woodworking master Tom Lensch. Given that I have a number of puzzles made by Tom, and I thought I was getting better at these packing puzzles, it seemed like a good idea to pick up a copy of this one.

Lean 2 with the four pieces

Lean 2 with the four pieces

As you can see this is another simple four piece packing puzzle. The additional challenge here is that the tray is two sided, meaning twice the puzzling fun … or frustration. Tom has crafted this using four different woods for the pieces, Zebrawood, Marblewood, Canarywood and Bubinga (I’m guessing on the Bubinga) with a Walnut framed tray. Measuring in at 5.5″ x 5″ and nearly 1″ thick, it’s a good puzzle to work on, and not too big that it can’t be slipped into a bag and taken with you.

Given that I picked this up in August, you may ask why it’s taken so long to write about. Well as it happens, I solved the first side fairly quickly. It took me several hours over a month or so as I’d pick it up and fiddle, then put it back down. I was fairly happy with that and feeling quite confident so moved on to the second side, and promptly failed to make much progress.

Lean 2's second side with the four pieces

Lean 2’s second side with the four pieces

I was a little disheartened when a good puzzling friend sent out an email asking for people to send him all the solutions they’d found for this puzzle. The suggestion was that there were a couple of false solutions that could be made. Well I got back to it and kept puzzling. After another couple of months, and several emails back and forth with my friend, I’d sent him 4 invalid solutions to the second side, but seemed to be no closer to the actual solution.

After another month of puzzling on this one I have to be honest and let you know I admitted defeat and asked for help. I dropped an email to fellow blogger Allard who had already solved and written about Lean 2 and asked for his help. I wasn’t looking for the solution, I’m not that much of a defeatist, but he kindly took pity on me and sent me a location for one of the pieces. I should note that I’d been sending Allard my ‘solutions’ and none of those I’d found worked on his copy of the puzzle, so he knew that I had given this one a fair shot.

With the hint in hand, I had the second side solved in about 2 minutes. Overall, this is a great puzzle, and kept me busy for many months. If you enjoy packing puzzles, then definitely pick this one up, it’s well worth the money and will keep you busy for quite some time.

3 thoughts on “Lean 2

    1. thejuggler Post author

      I must be a complete sucker Kevin as I have Brian’s Telephone box on teh way, and Sue tells me “That’s a really hard one”. I must be mad. Puzzle Mad perhaps šŸ˜‰

      Reply

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