1 December 2003 Sue Young

Criss Cross designed by Goh Pit Khiam

Sold Out Limited Edition 2003 Set of 24
Original Price: AU$220.00  (AU$200 ex Australian Tax)
This puzzle resold at Baxterweb Auction site 14th April 2008 for USD137.00. 

This puzzle is a combination of six pieces, each being a unique shape made by joining three rods together on perpendicular axes. Bill Cutler’s GENDA program reports three solutions, none of which it can disassemble. It is, however, possible to disassemble one of them with a rotational move that the computer has not yet mastered. The other two are as the computer found; impossible to get apart. This gives the puzzle a unique solution albeit very difficult to find.

Whilst the outward appearance of this puzzle may seem the same as the Sticks Cube invented by Oscar van Deventer in 1982 the pieces of this design by Goh Pit Khiam are different and none of them have three mutually touching joints. For added strength Brian has drilled and dowelled each join then glued with epoxy resin.

This puzzle is so rare that even the designer only has a prototype made from plastic cubes.

The puzzle is crafted from Cooktown Ironwood. This is a very heavy and dense timber, 20% harder and more dense than Ebony, even slightly more dense than African Blackwood, so dense it sinks in water. This timber is grown only in a thin band across the very northern tip of Australia known as Cape York Penninsula.

Because the colour of this timber can vary considerably the two extremes of colour are shown in a photo link below. Different shades of timber have been allocated numbers at random although we have put considerable effort into matching colour within each puzzle.
Size: 140mm x 140mm x 140mm

Tags goh pit khiam, oskar van deventer