Sunday 20 November 2016

Sandfield’s Unlocked Drawer



Way back in October 2012 I wrote about Robert Sandfield’s Locked Drawer – I really liked it, you may recall. 


What I didn’t mention at the time was that it had a younger brother, also beautifully crafted by Kathleen Malcolmson, called the Unlocked Drawer… it’s taken me a couple of years to find a copy for sale, but earlier this year I was able to find a copy of Robert Sandfield’s IPP27 exchange puzzle, and I feel obliged to yabber about it on here…


Now when I saw it has a younger brother, there is a very clear family resemblance: they share the same external features, but they’re made of different woods. The Unlocked Drawer has a beautiful Lacewood exterior surrounding a rather similar looking drawer to the one in the Locked Drawer… and there’s a similar rattle when you shake it. 


You’re told your goal is to retrieve the Texas Quarter from inside the drawer… 


Unlike it’s younger sibling, however, this drawer doesn’t simply slide open and present the coin, in fact, a fair amount of coaxing and tugging will not encourage it to budge a mere millimetre. 


A very close inspection of the drawer itself doesn’t yield much at all – except that it is VERY firmly locked in place… there is literally no play on the drawer whatsoever.


As you’d expect, when you finally work out how to open this box, there are a pair of beautifully crafted dovetails keeping everything where it should be… did I mention that Kathleen presented a masterclass on dovetails in puzzles at IPP36? :-)

No comments:

Post a Comment