The Sage - A SiamMandalay Magazine Issue 01

A SiamMandalay Magazine

A HISTORY OF BURR PUZZLES 10 HIDDEN BENEFITS OF PLAYING WITH PUZZLES THE MAKING OF PUZZLES

Special MEET THE DESIGNER JACK KRIJNEN

Issue 01 July-September 2015

Editor Firstly, everyone at SiamMandalay would like to say a huge thank you for your support of us in our inaugural edition of The Sage.

We are all excited about this journey and although it may be a winding road, we are working hard to provide all puzzles fans (yes that’s you) a quarterly print or download with the very latest on all things puzzles.

We have created The Sage Magazine with the premise of spreading our love of puzzles as far as we can and allowing you, the reader, to share and participate. In pursuit of this, we invite and encourage all of you to become active with your own input; articles, images, ideas, feedback or suggestions.

SiamMandalay believe in a policy of sharing knowledge and experiences, we hope that you’ll join us on this journey and share yours.

Thank you,

The SiamMandalay Team

Contents 3 A History of Burr Puzzles 4 10 Hidden Benefits of Playing with Puzzles 6 Meet The Designer Jack Krijnen 10 Puzzles: The Making of

Contact Us Email: info@siammandalay.com Website: shop.siammandalay.com Facebook: facebook.com/SiamMandalayPuzzles Instagram: @SiamMandalay Twitter: @SiamMandalay SUBSCRIBE TO OUR MAILING LIST

All contents and images on this magazine are protected by copyright. © 2015 Siam Mandalay Co.,Ltd. All rights reserved.

of y r o t s i AH

Burr Puzzles

by Sean Allan

Burr Puzzles, are a variety of interlocking, assembly puzzles – consisting of engraved, notched sticks that slide together to make one three-dimensional, symmetrical unit. Typically crafted from wood, high quality Burr puzzles have to be precisely made in order to slide together accurately.

This type of puzzle is regarded as a classic piece, especially the 6 piece knot burr shown below (links). The first known references to a Burr Puzzle was in 1803, when it was published in a toy catalog; at the time these puzzles were termed “Chinese” or “Oriental” knots – as they were purported to have been invented in China, however it is far more likely that they were made in Germany.

It wasn't until 1928 that Burr Puzzles first caught the attention of the population. A Metagrobologist, Edwin Wyatt, featured the Burr Puzzle in his famous book “Puzzles in Wood” – Mr Wyatt named the puzzle after the Burr seed, which he felt it resembled.

The Burr puzzle, although regarded as a classic – has had peaks and troughs of popularity. During its introduction to the market, it gained commercial success, but was regarded as pedestrian and unsophisticated by puzzle aficionados, around the world. In 1978 a mathematician named Bill Cutler released an article in the in Scientific American, indicating the real complexity of the puzzle – Cutler analyzed that the Burr Puzzle could be solved 119,979 ways. This again instigated a fad - upon which Burr puzzles became regarded as a classic puzzle for the ages.

Through time Burr puzzles have evolved into multiple varieties: Six Piece Burr, Three Piece Burr, Pagoda, Chuck and Diagonal Burr, among others. These types of burr puzzles are divided up based on their final shape, the amount of pieces there are and how pieces are cut.

Designs and styles of the Burr puzzles are constantly evolving in complexity and arrangement.

photo credit: unsplash

Links $11.99

Symmetry Diamond $25.99

Neutron $17.99

Dahlia $15.99

Key of Tolán $10.99

Mini Lumberjack $15.99

3

By Sean Allan At SiamMandalay we like to stay ahead of the curve when it comes to all things puzzles. Our in-house boffins did some research and pulled together a list of why you need to get puzzles into your life.

4

Here is the skinny: 1.

6.

2.

7.

Improved memory: This one is probably not so secret. Remembering steps, moves and strategies that advance your puzzling and develop your strategy further. Puzzles are usually completed through gradual iteration often requiring a complex system of moves.

You'll need to remember them all.

Improved logical thinking: Hypothesizing and acting upon rational moves. Your logical reasoning will improve the more puzzles you practice with.

Problem Solving: Solving puzzles is in essence finding the solution to a problem. By working on puzzles you can train your brain to look for complex solutions, and think creatively. You can take these skills and apply them across your work and personal life - we all need problem solvers.

Organize your strategies thoughtfully and apply them – most types of puzzles have a central strategy or thinking style, these can be applied to other exams, games and tests.

Prioritizing: Working in a sequence, evaluating the situation and seeing what needs to be done first. The better you get at evaluating, segmenting and prioritizing the more efficient you will be with your time.

Eliminating elements and grouping elements together to make the whole process, more efficient. It's fantastic practice for work and play.

3.

8.

Obtaining Feedback: Planning and making choices followed by receiving feedback on your choices, both positive and negative. Base your future decisions on this feedback and you are on to a winner.

4.

Goal Setting: Move-by-move you are constantly evaluating what you need to do to go forward. Nobody likes a half finished puzzle, so you are encouraged to drive on and see it through.

Puzzles also present ever increasing challenges, going from small and basic to highly complex, so you can always move up or down the ladder.

5.

Patience and Perseverance: You know you are in for the long haul, but you keep working towards your goal. Puzzles offer a positive feedback loop, when you make progress you get the "aha moment" which reaffirms your pursuit. Keep going until the end, the rewards are there.

Spatial Orientation: This one is a biggie, it’s used in virtually every math based job and is not taught in schools. It’s the ability to think about a three dimensional object in your mind and rotate it - making moves in your head before actively doing them.

9.

Sharing Behavior: Puzzles and games are cross generational, which is one of their beauties. They can create powerful bonds between people and shows the benefits of good team work when people work towards a common goal.

10.

Gross & Fine Motor Skills: Most notably motor skills and hand-eye co-ordination can be practiced. This is typically through block games (like Jenga) and jigsaws. Careful placing of pieces is useful for fine motor skills which helps with clear handwriting and diligent finger work in instrument playing.

5

Meet The Desig n e r

Jack Krijnen

By James Farrell

Making the World’s Most Difficult Puzzles: Interview with Puzzle Master Jack Krijnen

6

Jack Krijnen was born in 1952 in the Netherlands, where he has spent his entire life. It was while studying mathematics at the Eindhoven University of Technology when, in his own words, he, “got infected by the puzzle virus.”

Krijnen explains, “Pieter van Delft and Jack Botermans are to blame for that; in 1978 they published the book Spelen met puzzles, and that was what triggered me to make my first puzzle: Van der Poel's 18-piece burr. All I used was a small saw and an old chisel that I had found in my father's shed. Still, every time I look at it, I reminisce.”

From there on Krijnen says it was a small step to his first design effort; in 1980 he finished the design of the Cube. “It's kind of special,” he says, “as it requires 9 moves, all with the same piece, to free that piece.”

For the next 20 years he says the puzzle virus lied dormant. “I designed and made only one or two puzzles,” he says, adding, “Working, pleasing my wife and raising two children, a boy and a girl, took most of my time – not to regret that, by the way. But with the children growing up, the amount of puzzle time increased and from 2000 on it became a real hobby, or, according to my wife, addiction. At the moment, there is not a day that I'm not one way or another occupied by puzzles. It can simply be talking about puzzles via mail or social media. But also making puzzles I like for myself to solve, or making small batches of my own designs to sell or give away.”

Me: For someone like me, who doesn't know much about making puzzles, can you describe the process of making one. How does an idea occur? How do you turn an idea into something physical? What processes are involved?

Krijnen: You cannot simply sit down and say to yourself: Well, let's design a new puzzle tonight. It always starts with an idea.

Sometimes that's all there is to it. I got the idea for the Wine-rack while I was assembling a wine-rack; I made it from the remaining parts, the same day. This must have been somewhere in the 80's; much later, in 2008, I discussed the design with John Devost and came up with a modification, the Pinhole Cube. Totally different appearance, but the same puzzle.

Sometimes it involves more inspiration than perspiration, such as with my elephant

design. My daughter's favourite animal is the elephant, so I wanted to design one for her as a puzzle. After I figured out the locking sequence, the rest of the design was merely a crafting challenge: how to give it a nice look.

The name of the puzzle is not surprisingly: Mary's Pet. Me: Can you explain more about the technical aspects of design?

Krijnen: I have spent much time on high level designs, especially of 18 piece burrs. In 2002 Goh Pit Khiam held the record with his Burrloon. It took 33 moves to free the first piece. For me this was a fascinating achievement, and I wondered how I could improve on this. The concept I finally made to work was based on the Piston Puzzle of Peter Marineau. This was just a 6 piece burr, but it had a very ingenious to-and-fro sub-sequence of moves. Tipperary has a sub-sequence of 6 moves that subsequently have to be taken back. This is repeated 3 times. It interferes with a 7 move key sequences, resulting in a level of 43. In all, I spent 6 months with an average of 2 hours daily to reach a design with a unique solution realising the intended solution pattern.

Nowadays a level of 43 for the 18 piece burr is just a fact in the history of this form factor. I have been in competition and cooperation with Alfons Eyckmans. The record now is a level of 166 reached in the joint design of Supernova. I do not expect this to be improved upon in the coming years; I performed extensive computer analyses with a program I wrote.

Speaking of computers: the free availability of Burrtools as a solution as well as a design tool for interlocking puzzles has given a boost to the number of puzzles with high levels.

Looking back, I value my Tipperary design higher than Supernova. It is the difference between an idea coming to life and just reaching a higher level.

Me: So what happens in the workshop?

Krijnen: A lot is said already in books, publications, blogs and forums. On YouTube one can find video's about practically every aspect of wood crafting, including the tools to use and how to use them. So, this won't be more than a small introduction on the subject.

It starts with finding a woodshop and choosing your wood. I visit a shop not too far

7

away a couple of times a year to fill up my wood supply. They sell different kinds of wood by small boards, typically 80x15x2 cm.

That's quite ideal for my purposes, single copies or small batches of puzzles. Usually I work with common and easy-to-use woods like maple and mahogany. Because puzzles sometimes require three or more contrasting wood colors I make sure to have other kinds on stock also, like walnut, zebrano, padauk, bubinga, and more. More woods may contribute to an appealing appearance too.

For making rectilinear burrs, for instance the traditional 18 piece shape, really square rods are essential for a good result. I make them the standard way, saw them with a saw table from the boards and smooth the sides with a planer. I size the pieces with a small table saw using a homemade shed. The same shed is used to remove the notches from the pieces.

Most puzzle makers use additional parts and glue for inner corners, but I prefer the use of a small router and completion with a chisel.

As far as I know, only Maurice Vigouroux works the same way. Some puzzles require a routing pattern on the edges of the pieces to enforce a unique solution.

For finishing the pieces I've long had a preference for oil; recently I'm using wax finish too.

It is more of a challenge if the shape of (parts of) the puzzle is less straightforward. I've mentioned Mary's Pet already: how to shape tusks, trunk, tail?

Some puzzles come with a cage or frame, glued together from several parts of wood.

You have to ensure the joints are strong

8

enough; no one likes the construction to break when first strength is applied. So usually just gluing together is not sufficient.

Other ways to add strength to glued pieces are the use of dowels or splines.

The frame of Power Tower is built from 9 parts, each made in way similar to making the pieces of rectilinear burrs; next the frame is glued together and made into the rounded shape with a band sander.

Even more of a challenge – and fun – are polyhedral dissections. Stewart Coffin is the well-known name here. I have made several of his designs following his instructions for the basic building shapes as tetrahedral blocks, rhombic pyramid blocks and so on.

Special jigs and sawing under different angles are required for those.

As I said, this only touches on the subject and is far from complete. I have made puzzle boxes with a wooden inlay; you have to find out the best way to do that. In books and forums you can learn about adequate techniques. But in the end it comes down to choosing the way that suits you best – mostly after experimenting and the spending of time, and wood. The satisfaction: did I really do that?! This is the reward!

Me: What for you is the most impressive puzzle you've ever come across?

Krijnen: That's Bill Cutler's Binary Burr. It won a first price at the IPP puzzle design competition in 2003. Bill created an interlocking equivalent of the famous Chinese ring puzzle, where each extra ring doubles the number of moves to solve the puzzle. I

never thought of even trying this; it was like attempting maybe not the impossible, but definitely the unthinkable.

Me: So the hardest burr may have already been made?

Krijnen: There is a difference between a high number of moves and difficulty of solving. It is easy to design a 2 piece interlocking puzzle with for instance 1000 moves to solve (though crafting would take some time). However, it would not be much of a disassemble challenge. It would only be boring.

Me: Is there a puzzle you struggled with, or just could not complete?

Krijnen: I certainly like the challenge of mastering complexity. In 2003 I designed Tipperary; as I told you before it took me 6 months with an average of 2 hours daily. At the start I had no idea whether I would be able to complete the task I committed myself to.

In the autumn of 2013 Goh Pit Khiam invited me to join his research into n-ary burrs. These are burrs with a number (say: m) of key pieces; each key piece can be in n states.

Solving the burr requires the passing of every possible combination of states of the key pieces. So, the level of the puzzle is proportionally to n^m. Bill's Binary Burr is an example with n=2 and m=6.

Pit Khiam was looking for extendable (in both n and m) designs, and had come up with some attractive specimen already. I noticed they all required extra synchronizing pieces to enforce the n-ary sequence. I wondered if it would be possible to do without the additional pieces, and achieve the synchronization with the n-ary sequence with the key pieces themselves. For two months I tried, with no success. I let it rest for over a month. I was about informing Pit Khiam I was going to cease my attempts, but gave it a last try with another setting, 3-ary instead of 2-ary. To my own surprise I found a rudimentary working design within hours! The next week was hectic, we spammed each other with numerous improvements, and finished the Power Tower design. I didn't get much sleep that week...

Me: Can a laymen create a very difficult burr?

Krijnen: Nowadays, with the free availability of Burrtools, it is possible to define a high

“

I'm not great at solving; except for puzzles requiring a systematic and logical approach.

“

level and difficult burr without much design experience. It is merely a matter of trial and error, and have the program do the work.

However, it will seldom lead to a really appealing or elegant puzzle.

Me: I guess as you make them, you are great at actually solving puzzles?

Krijnen: I'm not great at solving; except for puzzles requiring a systematic and logical approach.

Me: Some of your puzzles must drive some people crazy – I can barely do the easiest ones! – but there must be lots of benefits to people solving puzzles. Can you suggest why these puzzles might help people in an educational way?

Krijnen: You can practice thinking in shapes, it enforces the spatial visualization ability.

Exercise understanding of symmetrical shapes, train your deductive capabilities. And in the end, there's always the fun a good puzzle offers.

Me: Lastly, the younger generation don't seem as interested in thing such as these beautiful interlocking puzzles? It seems a pity, as so much work, craft, creativity goes into these puzzles? Do you have anything to add concerning this?

Krijnen: I do not recognize this. I'm a regular attendant of the Dutch Cube Day, and of several forums. It's true that the really young, under 20, are a minority, but the puzzle world is far from a grey community and spreads over a wide range of age. Coming to think of it, age was always of minor importance.

A Special thank you to Jack for his time from all those at SiamMandalay.

If you are in any way involved with interlocking puzzles James would like to hear from you. Contact: jamesaustinfarrell19@gmail.com

9

By Sean Allan

10

“ Our artisans sculpt the

wood with a delicacy and finesse acquired only through years of practice mastering their craft.

SiamMandalay maintains a policy of harmony and sustainability for all our materials - for every tree harvested, another is planted.

Our farm in rural Thailand is designed to be 100% eco-friendly in everything it produces, including cultivating our raw materials with holistic methods and processes. It is tailored for the abundant growth of Chumcha wood and, with a team of supporting farmers, we insure it flourishes.

The selection of raw materials includes the highest grade of Chumcha, renowned for its durable, textured feel and subtle hued tones.

Otherwise referred to as Monkey-Pod, Chumcha bears a very unique pink and cream-gold flower with whisker like petals.

To maintain our integrity we keep our manufacturing local, our workshop is constantly buzzing with the murmur of masters at their craft.

The wood is graded at our local workshop, with the premium, hardwearing grades used for our collection. Other grades are cut for ornaments, pencils and other decor.

After the rough cuts have been made, each piece is hand sanded and filed. We want your puzzles to be smooth to the touch - easy on your hands and your eyes.

The workshop has its own team of highly

“

skilled craftsmen. SiamMandalay designs carry a trademark style, texture and feel produced through the honesty of human hands.

Our artisans sculpt the wood with a delicacy and finesse acquired only through years of practice mastering their craft.

Next comes the wax: Our puzzles are coated using a secret Thai recipe enriched with natural ingredients. This gives our wood its unique textured coloring and depth. The wax protects the puzzles from the elements, general wear-and-tear, scratches and cracks.

The wood is then fashioned into one of our classic design templates, where it is detailed, fine-tuned and delicately worked by a specialist’s nimble fingers.

Each piece must be carved and measured precisely for a puzzle that, when complete, fits harmoniously.The final step – and this is where everything comes together.

We then sort the parts by the correct blueprint specifications. Then we hand-weave, bond and sew the pieces together. After assembly, puzzles are stored in a tailor-made dry room for the color to mature and the bonding to set.

11

"It is magic until you understand it, and it is mathematics thereafter" - Bharati Krishna -

shop.siammandalay.com