Monthly Archives: January 2013

Back after a short downtime

Sandfield’s Banded Dovetails

Back in August last year at IPP, I had the pleasure of meeting Robert Sandfield and talking to him about his puzzles, as well as picking up a copy of his Banded Dovetails, and ReBanded Dovetails puzzles.

Sandfield’s Banded Dovetails or is it the Locked Draw Puzzle?

First up is his Banded Dovetail puzzlebox. Designed by Perry McDaniel, and crafted by the very talented Kathleen Malcolmson. Crafted from Mahogany, Alder and Prima Vera, I think you’ll agree that this is a great looking puzzle box. As is the Sandfield brothers trademark, there’s dovetails in there, with what looks like two bands which have been pinned to the outside of the box, creating an impossible joint. Of course, it wouldn’t be much of a puzzle if it were impossible, but the impression is very convincing. The puzzle measures 3.2″ x 2.25″ x 1.5″ so its small however I think the size really adds to the charm of the puzzle.

The goal is simply to open the box, but when is it ever simple when someone hands you something telling you it’s simple? When you pick up the box you’ll quickly find that shaking it will reveal something rattling around in there. Whether that’s useful or not it’s hard to tell, but any clue with a locked box is useful right?

This one took me a good hour or more to figure out. All the things I had thought of were entirely unhelpful and didn’t get me any closer to solving the puzzle. Really the thanks for that go to Kathleen who’s made this so well that there’s no clues at all as to what’s going on. I think it’s made even more impressive when you realise how many moves are required to open the puzzle.

The bag for the Banded Dovetails

As well as being a great puzzle, there’s also a bit of a story behind the puzzle too. If you have a look at Brian’s review of the puzzle, you’ll see he lists it as IPP 28 (Prague) from 2008. Allard’s review lists it as IPP 29 (San Francisco) from 2009, and my bag has IPP 30 (Japan) 2010 listed and a different name for the puzzle! So what was really going on? Sadly I can’t tell you, but it was an IPP 29 exchange puzzle. Both Allard’s bag, and my info sheet which came with the puzzle list IPP 29, and have IPP 28 crossed out. Whatever happened, I’m glad that this one made it out as it was worth the wait.

This is a real gem, and if you can get your hands on one, don’t hesitate!

Sandfield’s ReBanded Dovetails

During the Exchange, Robert’s puzzle this year was the ReBanded Dovetails. When he exchanged this puzzle box, he mentioned that he’d had Kathleen remake the boxes as apparently some people had managed to open the Banded Dovetail, so this was to resolve that issue. A fun little story, and a nice way to present the new puzzle.

As you can see, the appearance is very similar to the Banded Dovetails puzzle. Made by Kathleen, and designed by both Robert Sandfield and Kathleen Malcolmson you know that there’s going to be something clever going on. This one is made from Baltic Birch plywood, Walnut and Lacewood. Plywood isn’t the sort of material that you’d expect to find in a puzzle box, but given the striking striped appearance and great finish, I really like the look of it. The wonderful snake skin like appearance of the lacewood really sets the box off nicely. Measuring 3.2″ x 2.5″ x 1.5″ it’s slightly larger than the Banded Dovetails, but only slightly. Of course the outer appearance is where any similarity ends.

Again when you pick it up, there’s a rattling from inside, and if you’ve already solved the Banded Dovetails, you might think that this gives you a clue. Well, prepare to be disappointed! Requiring a few more moves than the previous puzzle this one is every but as well crafted. I managed to open this one far faster than the first, taking less than 5 minutes, but I enjoyed it every bit as much.

This is a clever and well made box, with a couple of nice tricks up its sleeve and the mechanism is very well hidden. Hat’s off to Kathleen again there.

Both of these are great puzzles, and I’d say don’t hesitate to add them to your collection if you get a chance.

Rhombic Maze Burr

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At IPP32 in Washington DC, Derek Bosch unveiled his latest puzzle design, the Rhombic Maze Burr or RMB for short, and took names of people who were interested in ordering a copy. I’ve been fortunate enough to have both of his prototypes to play with for the last few months, and it’s about time I let you see them.

The large and small RMB’s side by side.

If you’re familiar with Kagen Schaefer’s Maze Burr then this might look a little familiar to you. Indeed it’s a very similar design, but Derek has taken it one level further by transforming the frame from a cube into a much more complicated Rhombic frame. That means that the number of moves to open the puzzle can range anywhere up to 350+ moves.

The goal of the puzzle is to slide the plates and work toward removing the plate which has a slot cut to allow it to be removed from the frame. The plates are dual layered, where the top layer moves in one axis, and is connected by a pin to a lower plate which moves in the orthogonal axis. The lower plate has a pin screwed into it which runs in the maze tracks cut into the top plate. As you move the bottom plate, it sticks out through the frame, preventing the adjacent plate from being moved in that direction. To be able to solve it, you often need to think several moves ahead to make sure you don’t block your progress. It’s much simpler than it sounds and the video should show things much more clearly than I can describe them.

With the same set of plates, much like the Maze Burr, the way the plates are arranged changes the number of moves required to solve the puzzle. Initially Derek had two sizes of the puzzle available, the small and large as seen above. Derek was also offering two different materials, having both a fully 3D printed version, and one with Acrylic plates. Add to that a possible option to change the colours to whatever combination you wanted, and it’s an attractive offer. The large puzzle measures around 4″ at it’s widest, and the small is around 3″. Both are a good size however I’d say given that I have reasonably large hands I prefer the larger size.

Having been able to play for a while I can say that both versions work exactly the same, so the size doesn’t change anything. With the larger fully 3D printed version, the friction between the plates initially was making it a challenge to slide them, however as the plates rub past each other they quickly become much smoother and I didn’t find it to be a problem. Given that I was the first person to really play with this copy, I had some breaking in to do. In some regards it may have been helpful since Derek had configured the larger maze in one of it’s harder configurations so when I found a stiffer plate it tended to mean I was moving in the right direction. With over 300 moves (assuming I didn’t backtrack) it was quite a challenge, but after 4 months of playing I did finally solve it. It’s an epic challenge, but certainly possible. With logical thought and analysis of what needs to be moved, you can continue working in the right direction.

The small version showing how the pieces move.

The smaller version was configured in a much more manageable setting with around 50 moves required, and I was able to solve it in around an hour. Learning from the simpler configuration I was able to apply that to the more complicated setup as the same principles apply. Of course if you get entirely stuck, you can unscrew the pins and always reset the puzzle so you’re not going to be stuck.

The large RMB with two plates removed to be reconfigured.

Since Derek gave me these versions to play with, he has been hard at work and is now able to make the mazes scalable, and has also etched letters into the frame and maze plates to make it much simpler to describe how to configure a particular maze. These modifications will be available when the puzzle goes into production later this year. The puzzle will come with a booklet containing around 50 configurations for the puzzle, and I know Derek has done analysis with 5 additional exit plates although there are no plans at this point to include the additional exit plates. The puzzle has been computer analysed producing 20 Terabytes of data so I can assure you there is no shortage of configurations to keep you busy!

One thing to note is that as you can see, with the Shapeways 3D printed frames the white discolours reasonably quickly and can end up looking quite dingy. One option is to dye the frame a darker colour which should help. Derek has also hinted to me that he may offer a DIY version of the puzzle which would be cheaper, but there’s no details about what that would be at this point.

From the photograph above showing how to reconfigure the plates, you can see that the puzzle is hollow, so there is empty space inside, however the opening to that inner space is rather small.

If you’re interested in a copy of Derek’s RMB, then let me know and I can pass on Derek’s details to you.

Hercules

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Hercules, or the 22nd Labor of Hercules, is a Jean Claude Constantin puzzle which he used as an exchange puzzle at IPP 22 where he made copies in wood. This version was made by Bits and Pieces and was available from Puzzle Master.

Hercules a.k.a. 22nd Labor of Hercules

This copy of the puzzle measures 4.75″ x 4.75″ x 0.6″ with machined aluminium pieces, and a plastic tray. The anodising on the aluminium pieces makes all but the black piece stand out against the black plastic tray, so this is an attractive puzzle sitting on a puzzle shelf. The pieces are accurately milled, and fit the tray well, with little additional room beyond that needed to solve the puzzle.

For me, the plastic tray is pretty poor. In my copy it’s not very well made, with a number of small lumps of plastic around the inner edge of the tray, and while not flimsy, it does feel cheap next to the aluminium pieces.

As both Brian and Gabriel have pointed out the finish on the aluminium pieces is pretty poor. There are some very noticeable milling marks on all the pieces, and the anodising process has left some uneven colour, which is most noticeable on the blue piece. I have a number of metal puzzles which have been coloured this way, and the is probably the poorest example I’ve seen. Not much to ask to have the pieces finished to a slightly higher standard.

Looks like lots of room in the tray

That aside, the puzzle is well made to tight tolerances, and as such, the puzzle solving experience is not affected. I do have one small gripe here though. The puzzle comes in a cardboard box which exactly fits the tray and no more. That means that the puzzle comes shipped in the solved state. I would be fine with that, however inside the cardboard box, the puzzle is in a sealed plastic bag, with the solution, face up, on top of the pieces. Really if you want to solve this one yourself, ask someone else to unbox it for you, and hand you the pieces and tray separately, as there’s no easy way to even open the box upside down and have the pieces fall out so you can solve it ‘unseen’.

That aside, the solution provided is particularly inelegant. Much like both Brian and Gabriel, I found an alternate and much more elegant solution to the puzzle, which I believe to be the originally intended solution from what I have been able to see of Jean’s exchange picture. So if you find yourself unable to avoid seeing the solution the puzzle is shipped in, I’d say try for this alternate solution, I think you’ll prefer it anyway!

Overall this is a good copy of the puzzle, and for the price you really can’t argue. Well worth picking up a copy as it’s a great little puzzle, and not too challenging that you’ll find the satisfaction of a solved tray packing puzzle before you pull out all your hair.

Revomaze Gold Extreme

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This entry is part 6 of 11 in the series Revomaze

It’s been a while since I reviewed a Revomaze puzzle, and since the last time I talked about them, there’s been a couple of new puzzles released from Ashton Pitt. We’ve had a couple of special editions in the form of an Orange, and a Lime, and the final puzzle in the Series 1 set was released. That puzzle was the Gold, and was shipped almost exactly a year ago.

The Gold Revomaze Puzzle

I’ve already covered the basic puzzle in my first review of the blue, so for general information on the Revomaze puzzles, I’d suggest reading that post here.

The fifth and final puzzle from Revomaze in the Series 1 is the Gold. This puzzle, like the Bronze and Silver isn’t available as a plastic puzzle in the Obsession line, as it’s not possible to create some of the internals in plastic.

The Gold is rated by Revomaze as having a difficulty of 100/100 (extreme) and an estimated opening time of 250+ hours. The fastest opening so far is listed as 400 hours. It is described as a dynamic maze and is the hardest puzzle to be released to date from Revomaze. Only part of the puzzle is listed as being mechanical. There is also an algorithm, which needs to be solved in order to be able to open the mechanical puzzle. Each Gold is listed as being unique, and I’ll talk a little about that later.

If you’ve read the Silver review, you’ll remember me talking about the “not-a-canyon”, which was an area where the core was able to spin. Something we’d not seen in a Revomaze puzzle previously, and certainly had many of us scratching our heads as to how that could happen. Well Gold starts that way, and really doesn’t get much better.

Very early on in the puzzle, you’ll find yourself going in circles, with the occasional notch you can drop into. You may even find that from time to time that notch isn’t a notch, and becomes a path further into the puzzle. At first it doesn’t seem to make a lot of sense, and if you’re lucky, within a short time, you’ll find yourself with the core as far out as you’ve seen it with any of your other puzzles, but there’s no dot, so you know you’re not finished. And let’s be honest, if the puzzle is rated as the hardest to date, you’d be a little upset if it was that easy.

So you’ve now got the core as far out as you can, but it’s not done much for you, and really at this stage you have little idea what you did to get it here. So you decide to go back to the start, and spend some time trying to figure things out. Of course, getting back is almost as much of a journey as getting to where you are!

The challenge here is to figure out what’s going on and understand what allows you to move from one ‘ring’ to the next. Like any other Revomaze, this puzzle can be mapped although you probably think that’s not true initially. As with any other Revomaze puzzle, I had to sit and map things out, and although it seemed like I’d need to do something special for this maze, it does map out the same as any other and I resorted to my usual Excel based map.

Now as I mentioned previously, the mechanical puzzle is only one small part of the Gold, and that is where many people on the Forums have expressed disappointment, myself included. The reason is that in order to open the puzzle, you need to solve an algorithm, in the form of a set of cryptic clues to be able to get a code which can then be applied to the puzzle to let you open it.

Sound complicated? Well the clues are certainly cryptic, and will need you to think so far out of the box that as of writing this a year after the puzzle was released, no-one has solved the algorithm to the satisfaction of Chris Pitt. That alone tells you all you need to know as far as I’m concerned.

For me, I found the algorithm to be very off-putting. I have loved the Revomaze puzzles from the first one I played with as they are challenging mechanical puzzles. Sadly the Gold is not a mechanical puzzle. It’s a combination lock. You get a code, enter it, and the puzzle opens. That may be over simplifying things, but at the bottom line, it’s exactly what we have.

Chris tried to create a puzzle which could not be opened by cheating, and wanted to have a puzzle were each and every copy was unique. The algorithm allowed him to do that, and with a minimum number of internal parts, each puzzle in the 250 puzzle run could be made unique. Sadly for me, and I know I’m not alone, that also took the Gold away from the original spirit of the puzzle.

When you receive the puzzle, and get the algorithm clues, you’ll also get a three letter code with the puzzle. When you register your puzzle with Revo HQ, you’ll need to send this code as part of the email. From there, you’ll receive another three letter code in return. These are the starting point for solving the algorithm and getting the solution code you’ll need to open the puzzle. Of course without understanding what’s going on in the puzzle, and how you’d apply the code to the puzzle you’re not going to get very far.

You’ll also get a warning that excessive use may damage the puzzle. Given that this was expected to be the most challenging puzzle, with over 250 hours of puzzling expected, what exactly is excessive use. It turns out that the warning was issued because there was some discussion about brute forcing the puzzle by trying every possible combination (in theory 25^3 or 15,625 combinations). I don’t think you’re going to damage the puzzle by trying to solve it, but perhaps trying 15k+ combinations is excessive!

There are clues and useful markers inside the puzzle for the observant puzzler, and there is a lot to learn in the puzzle. I lost track of how long it took me to open the Gold, however I finally opened my copy in August 2012, after playing on and off (mostly off) for eight months. I was number 7 to open the puzzle and there have been only 15 puzzles opened in total so far. Strangely enough the puzzles being opened are a little like busses. There are none opened for ages, and then four come along at once.

Revomaze Gold Open

Having opened it, I think it’s fair to say that it is a challenging puzzle, and may well be the most difficult Revomaze released to date. There are certainly fewer people have opened Gold than any other Revo. I don’t think it’s my favourite in the series, and for me Bronze still holds that spot.

Oh, and there is no dot on the shaft if you were looking for one.

The review wouldn’t be complete without me mentioning a few of the issues that have been discovered since the puzzle was released. There have been a few puzzles which had to be returned to HQ for repair, and it is possible to get the puzzle in a state where it is jammed, and you can’t navigate through the puzzle. In most cases, this can be easily fixed without having to return the puzzle, but as with anything that may not always be the case. As with any of the Revo puzzles, excessive force is not required, and could damage some of the parts inside the maze.

I’ve spoken with many other people who have been working on the Gold puzzle, and many people have expressed opinions about their experiences. This puzzle is not for the faint of heart, and will test you far beyond any other puzzle in the series. Just be sure that you’re willing to spend a lot of time thinking and working on the algorithm before you take the plunge and get one. My personal feeling is that the Gold was a let down, and not the pinnacle of an excellent series of puzzles as it should have been. Chris I know has learned a lot from this, and will go on to bigger and better things I’m sure.

If you’re still working on the puzzle, and don’t want to know more, then I’d stop reading now. The remainder of the review is rather candid, and may reveal a few things about the puzzle that you might not want to know. Continue reading →

My Second IPP in 2012

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We’ve made it into 2013, and I find myself wondering where the year went. Seems like I achieved a lot when I look back on it, and even though I didn’t write about as many puzzles as I may have wanted to it seems like I got though a fair few. My collection continued to grow, thanks to some great designers and craftsmen out there, and I was invited to my first International Puzzle Party.

I met many of the people I’ve spoken to over the internet and made many new friends while I was there. One of those was Dor Tietz, who I was introduced to on the first night when a group of us went out for dinner. As we talked, I mentioned that I’d been to Israel a few times and given my day job, I’d probably be back again. He told me to let him know if I was going to be in Israel at any point as he’d organise a get together. So when I was traveling in October, I sent Dor an email, and he arranged my Second IPP for 2012. The Israel Puzzle Party! Before I leave 2012 behind I really need to write about this IPP as it was a very special meeting for me, and I had a lot of fun. It would be a shame not to write about it.

Dor very kindly picked me up from the Office at the end of my work day, and we drove the twenty minutes back to his house. While on the way Dor’s phone rings and there’s a short conversation partly in Hebrew and partly in English, as Dor confirms that we’re on our way.

Getting off the phone, Dor tells me that the call was from Dan Feldman who was on his way. Dor had arranged for a small, select group of local puzzlers to come along while I was ‘in town’, and had hand picked people to join us. Quite an honor, and as Dor pointed out, made sure that it wouldn’t be overwhelming for me.

Dan Feldman, Abraham Jacob, Me, Dor Tietz, Yael Meron, David Goodman

The small group included Dor, Yael Meron, Dan Feldman, David Goodman, and Abraham Jacob. Dor and I arrived a little ahead of the rest of the group, so I was given the tour of Dor’s collection. Sadly I didn’t take photos, but it’s fair to say he has a great collection. Various Hanayama’s and Puzzle boxes are on shelves in the living room, and there’s a dedicated puzzle room with one wall filled with bookcases of puzzle books and several cabinets with drawers filled with puzzles, all organised by type.

I didn’t have much time to rummage, as the rest of the guests started arriving, so I was introduced to the rest of the Israel team. Having met Yael on the first night at IPP, it was good to see her again and be able to catch up. Not to mention that another familiar face always makes things easier. Although I didn’t realise it initially, I’d also met Abraham before as well.

When I was helping out in the Puzzle Exchange at IPP, I had spoken with Abraham as Diniar and I exchanged with him. His wire puzzle ‘Encircling the “X”‘ looked very interesting, and his explanation of how it was made really intrigued me, however I didn’t manage to pick up a copy at IPP, and given that I had no money with me still don’t have a copy … I’ll remedy that the next time we meet!

David Goodman is a puzzle collector and designer who I’d not met before. He designs some great ‘simple’ puzzles. You know the sort that you look at and wonder where the challenge could be, and then spend weeks trying to figure out. I’ll get back to that though!

Finally we have Dan Feldman, the designer of the DanLock. Having seen my review of the Danlock, Dor thought it would be good for me to meet Dan, and be able to chat with him. As it turns out Dan reads my blog, and had read my review, so it turned out that I wasn’t the only one who had questions!

Given that I didn’t know whether I’d be able to meet up with Dor given my work schedules, I didn’t bring any of my work with me except a copy of Stewart Coffin’s Cube-16 that I’d made a small batch of thanks to a recommendation from John Devost. I gave that as a host gift to Dor. Everyone else had also brought puzzles with them so there was plenty to talk about and play with.

As we sat around Dor’s table and talked people delved into bags and boxes they’d brought with them, and started handing me puzzles to play with as we talked. It seemed that my ability to solve (or not solve) a puzzle just let to more and more challenging puzzles being presented. And by that you should read simpler puzzles being presented. Seems that not only twisty puzzles can stump me, but those with just a couple of pieces too.

Double Loop, unsolved

Double Loop Solved

Dor asked me whether I’d managed to get a copy of his IPP31 exchange puzzle “Double Loop” which I hadn’t. He promptly unboxed a copy, and made sure it was in the unsolved state by scrambling it for me. His theory is that if you get it solved you’ll probably never play with it, so this means that I would at least be able to enjoy playing with it once. The puzzle is an extension of the well known “Snake Cube”, but as the name suggests, rather than just one string of linked cubes, the Double Loop has two interlinked loops, making solving a lot more challenging and adding a whole other level to the puzzle. As you can see Dor, I did manage to solve it, and had fun playing!

9 Parts

He also gave me a copy of his IPP32 Exchange the “9 parts packing problem” as well. This one is designed by David, so it was great to be able to meet the designer. The challenge here is simple. Just pack all nine parts into the large container, and shut the lid. What could be difficult about that? Well it’s another challenging little packing puzzle, that kept me busy for a few hours. I’m getting a lot better with packing puzzles, but I’m still not quick with them!

Damn Saddam!

Damn Saddam’s face

Shortly after arriving, David went into one of the boxes he had with him and puzzled out a copy of “Damn Sadam”. This six piece puzzle is ‘taken apart’ by throwing it on the floor. A fair bit of force is required, and I wasn’t sure whether he was joking when he told me to throw it, so I handed it back to him and watched as he took three attempts throwing it harder each time before the pieces flew apart. Of course when they did, they were handed back to me to put back together. Fortunately I had seen a similar puzzle before and was able to put it back together pretty quickly. This ended up being a gift from David, so went into the pile of puzzles I was accumulating to take home with me.

Triangular Pyramid pieces

David then handed me a copy of “Triangular Pyramid” which was a previous exchange from David at IPP. It turns out that when David gave the puzzle to Dan, he found something of a useless machine when it was in its solved state, so that became a second challenge for the puzzle. Once you’ve combined the puzzle into its pyramid shape, you can move pieces in and out in a piston like motion which will continue indefinitely, making for a great distraction. I wasn’t able to solve it while I was sitting at the table, and although David offered to show me the solution I declined as I prefer to be able to work these things out myself. Besides with only 5 pieces it seemed so simple! David gave me the copy I’d been playing with so that I could finish solving it. I have to say it’s a great puzzle, for such simple pieces, and I highly recommend it. If you’re thinking about making your own puzzles, this would be a good one to try given it’s simplicity, and the challenging solution.

Ring a Nail

Another simple yet challenging puzzle David gave me was his “Ring a Nail” puzzle. Similar to the Nine Nails puzzle, this takes a slightly different approach, with a similar goal. The idea being to balance the five rings on the point of the nail. Yet another puzzle which seems so simple but really makes you think.

While sitting talking Dan asks me what I thought about the Danlock, given that he had read my review. It was very interesting talking to him about the puzzle and how it’s made. Dan explained a number of the possible ideas he had for the lock, including another mechanism which would prevent the broken key from turning in the lock if the lock was not oriented in a certain direction. Seems like the puzzle could have been a lot more devious, given all the ideas floating around in Dan’s head. His view is that the puzzle should be challenging, but not so difficult that you can’t see a way to proceed, or that you need to do something where there would be no reason for that action, such as hitting or tapping the puzzle. Another idea such as requiring to tap the puzzle to release an internal lock as an example, which Dan felt didn’t belong in the puzzle.

For anyone wondering why Dan doesn’t make more of the lock more frequently, given its success and high demand, the reason is quite simple. Dan doesn’t have his own workshop, so has to sub-contract various parts of the process. Getting someone to take on the small numbers he creates is a real problem, and often he finds that someone who he used in the past is no longer in business to help again.

It was fantastic to meet Dan in person, and to be able to spend time talking to him and getting to understand the designs he’s come up with was a fantastic opportunity.

J-Cubes Sheets

Folding the J-Cubes

Not to be outdone, Abraham had a few of his puzzles with him, including a very interesting paper puzzle from a previous IPP Exchange called J-Cubes. The puzzle consists of a number of laminated sheets with a number of images on them. The goal being to fold these into cubes, made from several of the pieces joined together, and meet a couple of challenges based on the images on the faces of the cubes. This is made harder by their being a number of different ways to fold the sheets, and joining them into cubes isn’t trivial either. Now given that I have found a love for impossible folded objects, this puzzle is right up my street. For something which seems so simple, it may have been passed up by many puzzlers. I have to say though, having played with them myself, if you have a set of these, do yourself a favor and go find them and play with them. They offer a good amount of puzzling, and will certainly make you think. the first challenge to get all the faces with the same image is not too tough, but the second challenge to make sure all the images are in the same orientation and you only use 6 out of the 7 sheets, finding the ‘odd one out’.

J-Cubes, cubed

Abraham asked me to play with the J-Cubes and let him know what I thought of them as he felt many puzzlers may have overlooked them given that they are ‘just a paper puzzle’. Well I can happily say I have played with them, and I think they’re well worth the hours I spent fiddling with them. They’re well thought out and certainly have a lot of puzzling in them. If you’d like a set, let me know and I’ll pass on Abraham’s details as I’m sure he’d be delighted to send you some.

Trio F&L

Quartet F&L

As well as the J-Cubes, he had a number of his wire and string puzzles with him. Initially I was handed a copy of Trio F+L Puzzle (left above) which was fairly straight forward and I solved in under a minute. With my confidence restored, he handed me Quartet F&L Puzzle (above right) which is much more challenging, and I manged to do little more than tie it in a knot. That said, it’s not a problem with one of Abraham’s puzzles as the string can be split and rejoined thanks to his thoughtfully placed clasp.

In a bizarre coincidence, as we were leaving Abraham commented that it had been his birthday two days prior. That’s also my birthday. Turns out it really is a small world. Ok, so Abraham has a few years experience on me but it was fun to find that we shared out birthdays.

Stick Up!

One of the puzzles I was handed by Dor on the night was this incredibly simple looking ‘pub game’ puzzle. The idea being to use one of the long sticks to create a tripod with the v shaped stick, and then use the second long stick to pick up the tripod from the table. Sounds simple right? Well I spent 40 minutes just looking at the puzzle. This did amuse Dor as I didn’t attempt to pick them up since I felt it should be possible to solve the puzzle by thinking about it, which is exactly what I did. Everyone decided that I would solve it in 5 minutes when I didn’t have four sets of eyes watching me. I wasn’t that quick I’m sorry to say, but I did solve it since Dor told me to take that away too so I could solve it. It may have taken me 2 months thinking about how to solve it, but I did solve it on my first attempt. Have a think and see if you can figure it out … or make yourself a copy and try it. Let me know how you get on as I’d love to know.

Trapped Penny

Coin Balance

Strange as it was this reminded me of a couple of ‘pub puzzles’ which I’d not shown anyone in over 20 years. I promptly set them up to give David and Abraham a shot at solving them, which turned out to be a great idea. I never really thought about it but these puzzles are so simple, but may have been lost to many for a long time. Seems like I need to try to bring them back to people if I can.

The first is the coin under the glass (left). The idea is to get the coin out from under the glass without touching the glass or the coins it is resting on. (You’ll need to set this up on a tablecloth). Do you know how to do it?

The second is to balance the coin on the brim of the glass, and get the coin over the glass (right). You can’t touch the glass or the coin. The coin should not end up on the side of the glass nearest you, or inside the glass. (Try doing this in the pub with a half full pint!)

All in all I had a great night with the Israel puzzlers, and have to say a huge Thank You to Dor for arranging everything. There was a lot more that we talked about over the night, and a good few more puzzles played with too, but I think I’ve covered enough for this trip. I’ll be sure to let Dor know the next time I’m traveling.

Neil's Puzzle Building Blog

The journey from puzzler to puzzle creator.