21 December 2006 Sue Young

Illegal Burr wooden burr

Sold Out 2006 Limited Edition set of 30.
Original Price: AU$250.00
One of these puzzles resold in April 2020 in Haubrich Puzzle Auction for Euro  338 (that’s AU$568.00 at today’s exchange rate)

Usually called Sonneveld’s Illegal Burr, Dic Sonneveld created the original design as a 6 piece level 6-4 interlocking burr in 1994/95

In 1996 Trevor Wood made the puzzle as a 5 piece puzzle under the name Sonneveld’s 5 Piece Burr. Joining two of the six pieces together did not overly change the degree of difficulty of the puzzle but it does make the pieces of the puzzle stronger and this is the version we decided to make.

Dic designed the puzzle with three goals in mind: 6 pieces, pieces as simple as possible, pieces as much the same as possible. Previous design attempts had created puzzles so complicated that no-one wanted to try them and he learned the “keep it simple” lesson very quickly.

The “illegal” move was found more or less by accident and Dic decided that because there are no “laws” in puzzle-land he would keep the design.

If you do consider that all legal moves to assemble and disassemble an interlocking burr should be linear, then you will quickly understand the type of move required to solve this puzzle. When all pieces are in exactly the correct position the illegal move will be possible. Just because it’s called an illegal burr does not mean you need force. No force at all is necessary when you get all the piece is the right spot.

The illegal move referred to in the original name is still necessary to get the puzzle apart in this 5 piece version.

The puzzle and base are crafted from Papua New Guinean Snakewood. The more vulnerable pieces of this puzzle have been reinforced with 6mm concealed wooden dowels to ensure the quality of the puzzle meets our Limited Edition standards. Every piece of the puzzle has been heavily arrised to minimise clues about where the “illegal” move is done.
Size: 90mm x 90mm x 90mm

Tags sonneveld