The By George Burr

THE „BY GEORGE“ BURR

Today’s IPP puzzle review is actually about an interlocking puzzle called THE „BY GEORGE“ BURR. George Syriaque, who is known as a collector of mechanical puzzles, designed his first ever puzzle for the IPP event in 2012. This is the 4th puzzle (out of 5) from Bernhard Schweitzers first consignment to me. His company Puzzlewood produced it in different wood versions and I believe that my copy is out of Ash, Maple and Padauk (correct me if I am wrong Bernhard). One could buy it for 50 Euros but it is no longer available from him at the moment.

Before I started working on this puzzle I read a blog post from Kevin Sadler who also bought a copy (but in a one colour wood) of this puzzle from Bernhard and he was writing about certain things I also experienced during the solving process. To start with, the disassembly process took me about 15 minutes. To find the first part moving was the first time consuming moment and the “rotational” move when there are only 3 of the six parts left took most of the time because the puzzle has really a tight fit. After taking it apart I did not scramble it but put it on the desk in the order of disassembly and left it alone. When I got back after a time I needed another 10 minutes to assembly the puzzle. If I would need to rate a difficulty I would say 6 out of 10 but if it would come disassembled and you only know how the final puzzle looks like then it easily climbs up to a 8 out of 10. By the way, I read on Brian Pletcher's Blog that this puzzle is a level 2.4.3.2.3. (the numbers stand for the moves needed to remove the first part, second part, etc..) interlocking burr.

This puzzle was really fun to solve and I did it a few times by now. I can give a recommendation to everyone interested in this kind of puzzle. Only the price point might be a little high for this very puzzle because there are 2 or 3 “gaps” which are too big for my taste (I am getting picky with time) although the overall movement is smooth and the fit is tight.