Twelve Bow Ties 3

If there is a Twelve Bow Ties #3, then there must also be a #2 in between #1 and #3. I had posted a write up about Twelve Bow Ties #1 last year and for the life of me, I don't recall having exchanged a #2....okay, maybe I did and its somewhere is my puzzle closet and I need to go find it.

TBT#3 is (apparently) the last of the TBT series. Designed and made by Wayne Daniel, this was Marti Reis' IPP36 Exchange Puzzle in Kyoto, Japan last year. The puzzle is about 7cm x 5cm x 5cm and shaped like two pyramids joined at their bases. Its actually an Octahedron, with eight faces, each an equilateral triangle shape. 

My copy is made from what appears to be walnut and maple. Very well made with fine attention to the details and the very precise cuts of the notches and small pieces. Great work! Aesthetically a very pleasing puzzle to look at with the white colour accents on the faces.

The object is to take apart and re-assemble the puzzle, which actually splits up into 7 smaller pieces (the last two are either glued together or stuck somehow and I can't seem to take them apart). Each of the seven/eight pieces look identical but not quite. They are interlocked against one another and there is a certain sequence of sliding piece by piece out of the whole, one after another, in various directions. You can see from the photo how they come apart. 

Unlike TBT#1, this version is much more difficult and if you are not careful with how you take them apart or you deliberately (and masochistically) scramble them after dis-assembly, putting the pieces back will almost guarantee a nightmare, as I discovered. Now, let me go and find #2....and complete the lot!

Twelve Bow Ties

Name
Twelve Bow Ties

Designer
Wayne Daniel

Manufacturer & Availability
Produced by Wayne Daniel

Type & Classification
Interlocking Solid

Dimensions
5cm x 5cm x 5cm

Materials & Construction
All wood and what appears to be cherry and walnut, the latter for the bow ties. Very well made with fine attention to detail and cutting, for such a small puzzle. Everything slides smoothly as intended.

Overview
Twelve Bow Ties was Marti Reils' IPP34 Exchange Puzzle in London. This puzzle takes the shape of a polyhedron with 12 faces and is known as a dodecahedron. Each face is itself a pentagon. 

The object of the puzzle is to take it apart and put it back together. The puzzle comprises of 8 pieces (with 2 sets of 4 congruent pieces each). Each of the pieces has grooves, notches and "bow tie" protrusions and the pieces slide and interlock against each other in the most amazing way. At first glance, you may even mistake it for an impossible object but not really, as the puzzle can be taken apart from different angles and directions depending on on which face of the puzzle you start from. 

Difficulty Level

Given the way its been cut, can be a bit tricky to put back together, if you totally scramble the pieces. The puzzle first splits into half and then into quarters and so on, so its best to try to remember which pair of pieces go together. 

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!

TetraParquet

Here's another interesting co-ordinate motion puzzle I played with earlier in the week. Both in terms of the puzzle design and the physical shape. Anyway I needed something less stressful after my struggle with the Optiborn.

TetraParquet was Stan Issacs' IPP34 Exchange Puzzle in London last year. The puzzle is triangular shaped and consists of six (also triangular shaped) pieces. Its called "TetraParquet" because the puzzle has four faces, and each face consist of a further three triangular faces. It was both designed and made by Wayne Daniel out of exotic woods; which I think is Maple, Paduak and Walnut. The woods give it a symmetrical 3-colour contrast. Construction, fit and finish is very good and everything slides smoothly. Reminds me of the Cast Delta, but in 3-dimensions.

Object of the puzzle is to take apart the six pieces and reassemble. Each of the six pieces have triangular "plates" glued and attached to the edges. These plates are the connectors between the pieces which holds and "lock" the puzzle in place. Very delicate looking parts!

Taking apart is not too difficult (unlike the Pennyhedron puzzles reviewed previous). Some manipulation and you can begin the feel the joints coming apart as the pieces start to split. Putting it together is harder as the pieces only fit together one way (meaning you can't interchange the positions of the pieces since the plates can fit into adjoining pieces only if the pieces are correctly matched). You start off by building two halves and then bring them together. There is then a need to maintain the six pieces slightly apart (not too far that they are totally separate) and slowly ease the six towards each other. Tricky and it took me a bit of fiddling to finally get the puzzle back into the solved state. 

Not a overly difficult puzzle by any means, but certainly it displays very nicely!