Seven Woods

Designer: Stewart Coffin

This puzzle measures: 68 mm x 68 mm x 68 mm

Material: Wenge, Garapa, Purpleheart, Maple, Padauk, Zebrano, Cherry

Kevin Sadler wrote about it:

“This is another puzzle by the master himself, Stewart Coffin, and is one that I’ve heard of but never actually seen before. It is another of his fabulous designs similar to the classic star puzzle. These are notoriously difficult to make well and accurately. Needless to say, Pelikan have made them absolutely perfectly. This is a gorgeous mix of beautiful woods with no gaps where there shouldn’t be. Despite having been around in the puzzling world, I have never actually seen this puzzle before and certainly not played with one. I spent almost an hour searching for the correct place and orientation where it slides apart – it is rather like one of the Pennyhedron puzzles in that if you don’t put your fingers in just the right place and try to move in exactly the right direction then it ain’t coming apart. At one point I started the move and was called by Mrs S to do something so slid it back together and when I returned to it, I couldn’t find the correct way to slide the pieces again. Eventually I was further astounded at just how smooth the movement was – the tolerances are absolutely spot on – this is almost held together by what seems like suction. Once it has been dismantled be careful, the points on the pieces are very…erm… pointy. Stabbing yourself is not fun. It is not difficult to work out how the puzzle is reassembled but care has to be taken to line up the points properly or it won’t go (it has to be mm perfect) and also avoid hurting yourself (I swore having stabbed myself quite a few times much to the amusement of the cat on my lap and the wife next to me). My first reassembly ended up with 2 faces not correctly matched (which does look lovely) and I had to do it again with more stabbing – great fun…ouch!”