TetraHexed

Now isn't this a handsome looking puzzle? The TetraHexed shown here is Stan Issacs' IPP35 Exchange Puzzle.

The TetraHexed is a Stewart Coffin design that dates back to 1971. The original copy called Cetus was made by a company called Skor-Mor. It was made of Styrene and Stan's mother had bought it for him from the Museum of Modern Art in New York.

This beautifully crafted version is made by Wayne Daniels and comprises of three woods, one which is Paduak, and the other two likely to be Cherry and Mahogany (although I can't be sure). Dimensionally, each triangular edge is 10cm x 10cm x10cm. All the pieces are very precisely cut with sharp edges and fit is perfect. The puzzle is just loose enough for the pieces to slide nicely yet the puzzle holds itself together properly. Really nice quality here.

In the packaging Stan has also provided 4 classifications for this puzzle:-

1. Hordern-Dalgety - INT-POLY
2. Slocum: 3.2 - Interlocking solid, geometric
3. Hajek Big Six - Packing 3-d
4. Houlis - +BU+GE+IN+MA+WD+04+TE

Now #4 above has me stumped; what do the letters and numbers mean? If anyone knows, please feel free to add a comment here.

The object of the TetraHexed is take the puzzle apart and put it together again with an additional challenge of putting three colours on each face.

This is a 6-piece co-ordinate motion puzzle. Dis-assembly and re-assembly is not too difficult as you manipulate the pieces. My way is to split it into two halves and then further split each of the halves. But putting it together with three different colours for each face is more tricky and requires some thinking and experimenting. All the 6 pieces are identical save for one different colour for each pair.  

Not difficult from the puzzling standpoint, but certainly this is one of those puzzles that would look really good on the coffee table!