Jack Puzzle

This would be a very distinctive art object, even if it were not a puzzle. It is beautifully machined and a very sturdy conversation piece. There is almost no play when assembled Its symmetry and apparent simplicity, make you think that it would be simple to take apart the six pieces and put back together with just a small amount of preparation. All you have to do is take out the pieces, one by one, paying close attention to how they were assembled. Following this approach, I slowly pulled out the key piece watching where it was, relative to the rest of the puzzle. It immediately collapsed! I remembered where the key piece had been inserted, but nothing else! Oh no! All I could do was laugh.

So, I started to reassemble it. For hours, I studied the pieces and how they could fit together and restore the overall symmetry. I would try for an hour, marveling at the high quality machining required to construct each piece. It took days, working 20 or 30 minutes at a time, before I started to see how the symmetry was fooling me. Eventually, I got very, very close. I would see how to create the place where the key piece would be inserted. But i was holding it wrong, and as I tried to maneuver my hand to uncover the key insertion point, there it was on my desk in pieces again. My fingers, holding the puzzle together, had been in the way. A couple more tries and I figured out how to hold the nearly finished piece. Voila! Success! How fun it that? Now, it sits on my…