Petits Puzzles – Mini Lock

Sometimes you just need to work on a puzzle because it’s cute and not because it’s an epic challenge.  Mini Lock by Christoph Lohe falls squarely into that category.  It’s not difficult and makes a great introductory challenge for someone just starting on interlocking puzzles.  It also displays very nicely and many experienced puzzlers will acquire copies simply for the cuteness factor.

Mini Lock is a simple interlocking burr in the shape of a padlock consisting of a frame and 3 simple pieces.  Two of the pieces form the body of the lock while the third acts as the shackle.  

Since I printed my own copy of this puzzle, it was an assembly challenge.  Even so, I’d recommend doing this puzzle as an assembly challenge since it’s not very complex.  Solving the puzzle follows a nice logical progression of how the pieces are introduced to the body.  The 2 body pieces are similar and it’s not too difficult to determine which is on top and which is on the bottom.  Most of the movements are simple with one standing out as a little more interesting, which for me, represented the best Aha moment of the solve.

Cubicdissection recently released a version of Mini Lock in wood, which was still available at the time of this post if you would like your own copy.  A 3D version is also sometimes available at ARC Puzzles.

Supporting Social Distancing - Burr Lock “E”

As many of us find ourselves shut in and social distancing becomes de rigueur, I thought it would be appropriate to review a lock puzzle.  Of course, since I’m a burr guy, I chose a burr lock, Burr Lock “E” to be specific.

Burr Lock “E” was designed by Christoph Lohe and released by Cubicdissection in April, 2017.  It was made from Honduran Mahogany, Ash, and Bocote.   Where does the “E” come into play?  Well, apparently there were several versions that didn’t make the cut before “E”.  I’m guessing, somewhere around 4.

A lot of puzzles have a key piece that you need to discover.  This puzzle has a rather explicit, in your face, key piece.  The nice thing about this puzzle is that it really is the key that keeps this puzzle locked.  In addition to the key, there is a frame, a hasp, and 4 other burr pieces that get packed in the frame.

I know it looks like a lock but please don’t try to turn the key.  That would be bad.  If you do and you hear a click, that would be really, really bad and you’ll need some glue.  No rotations are required and you may want to provide that useful hint to puzzlers that you hand this to.  Not to help them out of course, but to ensure that you get back the same number of pieces that you started with.

Normally, when you take apart a puzzle, I recommend that you wait weeks, months, or even years before reassembling it to ensure that you don’t remember any of the critical moves required to solve it.  When you finally stare at the pieces and wonder what shape they make, you know you are ready to begin the reassembly journey.  Burr Lock “E” attempts to solve this dilemma by having 2 solutions: one with the key in a vertical orientation and the other with the key in a horizontal orientation.  This way you can take it apart every couple of years and put the key in the alternate orientation.  According to Burr Tools, the vertical orientation has a level 26.2.3.2.2 solution and the horizontal orientation has a level 26.3.3.2.2 solution.  However, the solution to the horizontal orientation has an obvious rotation (I mentioned earlier that rotations aren't required, but I never said they didn't exist) to remove the first piece halfway through the 26 moves.  In fact, if you aren't consciously keeping it in place, it may just fall out. 

Burr Lock “E” is well made and well designed.  It is a lot of fun to solve and the required movements are fun to discover, especially the interactions with the key.  If you are tackling this as a fresh assembly, the locations of the pieces can be deduced fairly quickly and I recommend going through that process.

With respect to the 2 solutions, I was a bit disappointed that they weren’t more different.  Once you take it apart, you may still want to wait a year or so before assembling it to re-experience the joy of discovery.  However, the difference that was there, I didn’t see coming.  It wasn’t difficult to discover, but I wasn’t expecting it.

This puzzle has been sitting out on the china cabinet for several years waiting for me to solve the alternate configuration. You know how it goes.  You buy a puzzle with multiple solutions, you solve one of them, you mentally check off that you solved it, and then you never quite get back to completing the others.  Even though Burr Lock “E” only has 2 configurations, it's taken me almost 3 years to revisit it and solve the other configuration.

I noticed when I took it apart again that the exposed parts of the pieces were a different shade than the parts that were inside the puzzle.  This was most notable on the key.  Did it fade from the exposure to light?  No, it got darker.  However, it’s really not a problem when the puzzle is on display since it’s usually assembled and you can’t see the tan lines.  If this is a problem for you, you should keep your puzzles in the dark, in which case you might as well keep them in a plastic bag to cut down on the humidity fluctuations as well.  For those of you with humidity-controlled puzzle cabinets with electronically tinted glass doors, continue as usual.

The Marriage of a Great Design with Great Craftsmanship ‒ Bouquet

When I saw Bouquet, my heart beat a little faster and said “buy, Buy, BUY”.  My wallet said “Whoa Cowboy, puzzles don’t grow on trees you know.  Do you really need another Christoph Lohe puzzle or another puzzle made by Brian Menold?”  What a stupid question!  Of course I do!  And puzzles do come from trees, so there.

I first saw Bouquet at this year’s Rochester Puzzle Picnic (A Decade of Puzzling - RPP 2019).  I only spent a few minutes with it as the event was wrapping up and failed to purchase a copy from Brian before he left.  I’m fairly certain that there aren’t many puzzlers out there that have not regretted passing on an opportunity to acquire a puzzle.  After returning home, I realized what a horrible mistake I made and immediately contacted Brian to acquire a copy.  Luckily, there was one still available.

I really enjoy Christoph Lohe’s designs and have twice in the past selected one of his designs for my top 3 puzzle acquisitions of the year.  Tulip made by Cubicdissection in 2015 and Mimicry made by Pelikan in 2016.  This year it looks like it will include Bouquet made by Brian Menold at Wood Wonders.

Not only is Bouquet a beautiful puzzle, it’s an excellent puzzle.  Brian made several different versions of wood combinations and the one that I chose was made with a Wenge frame and Maple and Paduak pieces.  I thought that this color combination enhanced the image of a flower.  I know that the name is Bouquet but it reminds me more of a corsage with the 2 colors used for the pieces.

This puzzle has a 23.3.5.3.3 level of difficulty.  Taking it apart is not difficult and was a lot of fun figuring out how to manipulate the pieces and remove them from the frame.  It’s amazing how such an open frame can hold the pieces for so many moves.  There is a lot of empty space in the center of the puzzle allowing for a lot of movement of the pieces.  As a general rule, I try not to pay too much attention when taking a burr apart so that I can enjoy it more when putting it back together.

To thoroughly enjoy the assembly process, I left the pieces sitting around for a couple of months before attacking the reassembly.  When I pulled them off the shelf, my initial reaction was that maybe I made a mistake.  I wasn’t sure how the pieces sat in the frame and I had to resist the urge to look at an online picture of the puzzle.  As daunting as it initially looked, it didn’t take long to figure out.  Now all that was left was to figure out which piece go where, what order to add them, and how to move them.  Oh, and its going to take about 23 moves to add that last piece in.

The first thing to realize is that 3 of the pieces are right-handed and the other 3 are left-handed.  This is easy to track in the 2-color version since all the right-handed pieces are one color and all the left-handed pieces are the other color.  For versions that use 6 different types of woods, you have to work a little harder to keep track of them.

For some puzzles with a frame, it is easiest to determine how the pieces are oriented with each other before inserting them within the frame.  This is not one of those.  For me, the best way to tackle this puzzle was to add pieces to the frame one at a time using the frame to hold them in place.  As each new piece gets added, you have to figure out how to manipulate the other pieces to get the new piece in.  Along the way, you may have to reorient a piece or switch the locations of some pieces.  This process is not as bad as you may think since 2 of the Maple pieces are identical and the 3 Paduak pieces are similar to each other. 

I was able to get 5 pieces in fairly quickly, but the last one eluded me.  I had already discovered how the pieces could be manipulated to that last one through the heart of the puzzle if I could only get it started.  I was even able to pull another piece out and test that process.  I just couldn’t figure out how to get both those pieces in at the same time.  Obviously, neither of these pieces were the last to go in and it took some more experimenting to determine which piece that was.  It turned out that the last piece to be added was the one that I put in third and the second to last one was the one I put in first.

This puzzle is another masterful design from Christoph Lohe and I thoroughly enjoyed the solving process.  It generated a great feeling of satisfaction and confirmed that some of the pistons in my old clunker of a brain are still firing.  I’m really glad to add this masterpiece from Wood Wonders to my collection.