I managed to pick up a couple of relatively modest unusual puzzles on the latest round of Cubic Dissection auctions. One of them was a very plain looking puzzle designed by Jim Gooch called Triplets. This particular one was made in Zebra Wood by Puzzlecraft.
Perhaps I’m being a bit unfair by calling it plain-looking – but it looks like a simple common-or-garden three piece burr. However, there’s a clue in the name to the fact that this one’s a little different, and a quick glance over at Puzzles will be played – confirms that this puzzle consists of three identical pieces with a rather unconventional shape.
The oddly shaped pieces are totally disguised when the puzzle is assembled, leaving an unwary puzzler spending half their time pulling or pushing pieces against themselves – evil grin ...
In terms of burr- complexity, this one is about as simple as they get – two moves to remove the first piece and there are only three pieces anyway – but the shape of the pieces will throw anyone who hasn’t seen one of these before off the scent for quite a while ... really cute little puzzle for amusing folks who think they’ve seen one of these before...
The grain matching on the puzzle pieces here really makes the puzzle. By keeping the grain consistent, the illusion that you have a solid piece is really helped, and the Zebra wood makes that very obvious.
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