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Mr Puzzle - We've got puzzles!

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Puzzles by Designer > Stewart Coffin


stewart+brian.jpgStewart Coffin was presented with the very first "Nob Yoshigahara Award" for his "Lifetime Achievements in Design, Craftsmanship and Popularizing Mechanical Puzzles" in August 2006 in Boston.

Stewart began designing puzzles in 1968 and his first design was "Hectix" which was made by the 3M company.  Since then Stewart has designed more than 300 new and original puzzles and published a number of books about puzzles.  He is considered one of the most collectible and collected puzzle designers ever.

Stewart has his own puzzle design philosophy that is headed by this point: "Objective: bring pleasure and satisfaction to the puzzle solver".  He has certainly achieved that over and over again with his amazing designs.

Left: Brian Young see here visiting with Stewart in 2006

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Ball Room wood 3D puzzle

Ball Room wood 3D puzzle

Difficulty 4/5
There are three challenges to this puzzle. 
1. Pack all four pieces into the base as a cube shape.  There are three solutions to this challenge.
2. Pack three of the four pieces into the base as a tetrahedron (triangular based pyramid).  But which three? That's just part of the challenge. There is only ONE solution to this challenge.
3. Fit all four pieces together to make a 4 x 4 unit square based pyramid pile of ball.  This challenge is done outside the base.  There is only ONE solution to this challenge.


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Colour Wood of Balls


        
Make Room wood packing puzzle - Standard

Make Room wood packing puzzle - Standard

 DIFFICULTY RATING 8

The puzzle is to re-pack all 9 pieces in the box so that all pieces are under the closed lid.  You will need to make room for the key (dowel) to fit.

Mr Puzzle resdesigned Make Room so that this version  has a unique solution.

The puzzle is made with the kind permission of Stewart Coffin.   At IPP21 in Tokyo in 2001 a larger version of the puzzle #127-A  was given by Jerry Slocum as his exchange gift. That version had 14 separate solutions to fit all nine pieces in the box.  Click here to view this original design by Stewart Coffin. 

As well as our Standard Range this puzzle is also available Craftsman Range made using 9 different Australian hardwood timbers.



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Make Room - Craftsman packing puzzle

Make Room - Craftsman packing puzzle

DIFFICULTY RATING 8

This puzzle presents four different challenges:
Challenge 1 - Pack all 8 blocks under the closed lid. 30 possible solutions.
Challenge 2 - Make room for all 8 blocks and the gold rod under the closed lid (not in it’s packing position). 4 solutions.
Challenge 3 - Make Room for all 8 blocks and the key (dowel) under the closed lid. Unique solution.
Challenge 4 - Can you remember how the puzzle came packaged with the key in the lid? 3 solutions.

In 1997 Stewart Coffin originally designed  Make Room and allocated it #127 in his numbering system although only one of  these puzzles was made.  At IPP21 in Tokyo in 2001 a larger version of the puzzle #127-A  was given by Jerry Slocum as his exchange gift. That version had 14 separate solutions to fit just nine pieces in the box.

Brian had never made a packing puzzle before....   That all changed after IPP21 when he found himself playing with Jerry's exchange puzzle for many, many hours.  He then got interested in redesigning the puzzle to include a challenge with a unique solution.The puzzle is made with the kind permission of Stewart Coffin.

As well as our Craftsman Range this puzzle is also available in our Standard Range (Click here).

Click here to see the legend of the different timbers used in this puzzle.
Click here to see a photo of the pieces inside the box.
Click here to view this original design by Stewart Coffin. 



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Coming Soon




        
Siamese Locked Nests

Siamese Locked Nests

LIMITED EDITION of 30 puzzles released December 2008

Status:  2nd February 2010.  We have twelve of these puzzles still available.

 

Stewart Coffin wrote in "Geometric Puzzle Design" that assembling a cluster of separate hexagonal sticks and dowels can be a puzzle but a more difficult and therefore more interesting puzzle will be made when some of the hexagonal sticks and dowels are joined to make elbow-shaped pieces.  The more elbows the harder the puzzle.   Stewart theorised that the maximum number of elbows that can be joined before assembly becomes impossible is half the number of each type of piece, so that's what Brian has done. 

 

18 hexagonal sticks of varying lengths

18 dowels of varying lengths

9 hexagonal sticks and dowels joined to make elbows

 

Numbered as #22-B in Stewart Coffins numbering system his notes indicate at first that he thought he had only made one puzzle in 1985.  Later research would indicate that just two puzzles were ever made back in 1989 and no mention is made of how many elbows, or therefore the level of difficulty, of these.

 

Stewart noted that the lattice structure repeats itself indefinitely in all directions, so it would be possible to make larger assemblies with more and longer sticks and dowels.  But in reality it's not much help if you look at Stewart's notes;  Brian has built the puzzle in the reverse direction to Stewart's drawings, after all we are downunder.

 

The hexagonal pieces are made from: Papua New Guinean Ebony.  Whilst African Ebony is almost all black as you travel eastward around the globe the solid black reduces so by the time you come to the Pacific region the wood is a reddish brown with very prominent jet black streaks.  The dowel is made from Ramon wood.
Size: 2200mm x 170mm x 170mm  The hexagonal sticks are made from 20mm x 20mm stock.

 

 



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Pin Hole Grand Cross puzzle from Queensland Blackbean

Pin Hole Grand Cross puzzle from Queensland Blackbean

LIMITED EDITION DECEMBER 2007grandcross1.jpg