![](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhmptF3yQ2wWJzYQjDMdU-2OQ7WEYW8chV9zwGzTmbogtwt_uqQ8Ad_cQdDFzbI-Wijki-3IMBEZ3FQYFD-jSYwpH3nDm0kCk2DltU0qh_5wlPoH3HGoZTGtkA3R_1CGIdpvMjtDYu-bv62/s200/AW_Puzz_Cat-0551_edited-1.jpg)
('cos invisible ones are hard to photograph)
The universe has a strange sense of timing…
A while ago I managed to snag a single item off Nick’s auction – a copy of Bill Cutler’s Visible Burr. It had been made by Brian Young as a Limited Edition back in 2005 when he produced 30 copies.
Now it’s fair to say that I hadn’t been paying particularly close attention to the listed dimensions on the auction listing so I was a bit surprised when it arrived … it is large! And very Mr Puzzle-y – the woods instantly give Brian away, and the finishing at the end of the pieces should probably be a Mr P trademark by now… and if there was any doubt at all, he’s branded it with his logo.
![](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjCkt4vNaXikJduf3DsgZtagsWuRANSbJENAjHGDkfVtW6RVv-_WABBhCmPiynsGT1LDSIif7BK1xNhyFlkpiOlHlvJr06KMNjzxZKBHMc3UXFZQDhSjxqkAhumd31IQiD_Ccq6ev-G5Aiw/s200/AW_Puzz_Cat-0552_edited-1.jpg)
…then a couple of weeks ago Eric Fuller announces a new set
of puzzles available for sale, and one of them is none other than Cutler’s Visible Burr, and I can’t stop myself from ordering one, so soon enough I have
a second copy mocking me while I’m not puzzling… this one’s disassembled as
Eric was charging an assembly fee for this one (and having now played with
them, I know why!).
Seeing as how is was a long weekend I decided to give myself
a day off to play with puzzles, so I ended up spending the best part of the day
assembling and disassembling a pair of Visible burrs… and it was great!
![](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEit1lXXFg6KDWnHai1jcPEwsxvE3RKc5RaQWGSXlpuvTsBz9fEGpTQms_MGR-lTuLy8BzVjL-sdqyK4vHrYJvbsg-xexSSNmUitXMSmikFxHZS8rYWmbj0u98JQFFvBjErJfPGBdkrFUNjj/s200/AW_Puzz_Cat-0556_edited-1.jpg)
…and at this point you might notice something interesting –
there’s a lot of sticks that can move at most points in the solution – only some
of them are useful! You will find yourself wandering down a lot of blind
alleyways if you don’t examine carefully and think a few moves ahead. (Or you
can just play, experiment and fiddle around if you don’t mind going backwards
and forwards a bit – which is my preferred approach!)
![](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiRi3YZUv33biLB2upG0Nu1_O40VtB7OBEyO7r83bJyK9r4MlTyz2SkWytQPFhEGPe0Vp5gtQW1RlIdX5oJqArzY8JdfQDC48ooQDNw0ZoS5wJNM99oK2PgClpA-40pTc3RLBNXl2e66lc1/s200/AW_Puzz_Cat-0569_edited-1.jpg)
Keep on going and I have a large pile of large sticks. Yay. (What the hell did you do that for?!)
OK, now we pick up the smaller sticks form Eric and set
about building that into the same sort of structure… now the three type of wood
really help things, as does the fact that the frame pieces are all identical –
which means the only real challenge is the 12 internal pieces – the rest is
just about timing, timing and dexterity – did I mention you’re wrangling 24
pieces?
![](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh0cMh28qiKOqM5ItNTFWYnXORe2XaJXU9RcxiAOxfqOvKhrxdE7qxTFzmdOPhObnhouJ8OL6RVeZlgNEQoDaBw5ahsUA1zTLqIhFwgnjcsXRQiQzigAX9YjuEQyzVYDjQ0pFds1uvnuiuo/s200/AW_Puzz_Cat-0565_edited-1.jpg)
BurrTools found a suitable solution in mere seconds, but it
took a lot longer than that to actually build up a copy in the real world… oh
and then there was the reassembly of the big bugger as well.
So I started the day with an assembled giant copy and a
small set of sticks, halfway through my day I had a large pile of sticks and a
small Visible Burr, and at the end of the day, I now have a reassembled monster
on top of my cabinet looking down on my with grudging respect and a neat little
copy in the cabinet on the Fuller shelf… a good day’s puzzling all round!
"so by inspection, you should be able to deduce how to dismantle this 24-piece monster" - deduce? You've got to be joking! I'm moving bits randomly and getting nowhere! You're better at burrs than me obviously!
ReplyDeleteI think I might need your Burrtools file!
Kevin
Puzzlemad