https://www.craftypuzzles.com/ Puzzle history, mechanisms, collecting guides and archive research. en-gb Sun, 27 Sep 2026 20:26:51 GMT https://www.craftypuzzles.com/archive-detectives/ https://www.craftypuzzles.com/archive-detectives/ Follow the evidence used to identify discontinued puzzles, trace lost instruction pages and verify recovered solutions. Puzzle History & Guides https://www.craftypuzzles.com/archive-detectives/motor-cross-investigation.html https://www.craftypuzzles.com/archive-detectives/motor-cross-investigation.html Review the evidence for the discontinued Motor Cross wooden construction puzzle and help recover its missing instructions. Puzzle History & Guides https://www.craftypuzzles.com/archive-detectives/recovering-discontinued-instructions.html https://www.craftypuzzles.com/archive-detectives/recovering-discontinued-instructions.html Learn how Crafty Puzzles traces discontinued products through archived websites, old catalogues, photographs and verified demonstrations. Puzzle History & Guides https://www.craftypuzzles.com/archive-detectives/research-catalogue.html https://www.craftypuzzles.com/archive-detectives/research-catalogue.html Verified puzzle names and reference records being researched for future Crafty Puzzles solution pages and automatic identification. Puzzle History & Guides https://www.craftypuzzles.com/archive-detectives/rifle-investigation.html https://www.craftypuzzles.com/archive-detectives/rifle-investigation.html Review the evidence for the discontinued wooden Rifle construction puzzle and help recover its missing assembly instructions. Puzzle History & Guides https://www.craftypuzzles.com/archive-detectives/verifying-recovered-solutions.html https://www.craftypuzzles.com/archive-detectives/verifying-recovered-solutions.html Understand the Crafty Puzzles evidence levels for original, official, matched and provisional puzzle solutions. Puzzle History & Guides https://www.craftypuzzles.com/collecting/care-for-wooden-puzzles.html https://www.craftypuzzles.com/collecting/care-for-wooden-puzzles.html Use low-risk preventive care to protect wooden puzzles from force, moisture, dirt, sunlight and lost pieces. Puzzle History & Guides https://www.craftypuzzles.com/collecting/catalogue-a-puzzle-collection.html https://www.craftypuzzles.com/collecting/catalogue-a-puzzle-collection.html Create a consistent puzzle catalogue with stable identifiers, searchable fields, photographs and provenance records. Puzzle History & Guides https://www.craftypuzzles.com/collecting/ https://www.craftypuzzles.com/collecting/ Practical guidance for cataloguing, photographing, handling and preserving puzzle collections and instruction sheets. Puzzle History & Guides https://www.craftypuzzles.com/collecting/photograph-a-puzzle.html https://www.craftypuzzles.com/collecting/photograph-a-puzzle.html Take clear, useful photographs of a complete or dismantled puzzle so that its design can be compared reliably. Puzzle History & Guides https://www.craftypuzzles.com/collecting/preserve-puzzle-instructions.html https://www.craftypuzzles.com/collecting/preserve-puzzle-instructions.html Store and digitise puzzle instruction sheets so that diagrams, notes and provenance remain usable. Puzzle History & Guides https://www.craftypuzzles.com/encyclopedia/assembly-puzzles.html https://www.craftypuzzles.com/encyclopedia/assembly-puzzles.html Separate pieces must be arranged into a target outline, container or solid without necessarily locking together. Puzzle History & Guides https://www.craftypuzzles.com/encyclopedia/dexterity-puzzles.html https://www.craftypuzzles.com/encyclopedia/dexterity-puzzles.html Success depends partly on controlled movement, balance, timing or guiding an object through obstacles. Puzzle History & Guides https://www.craftypuzzles.com/encyclopedia/disentanglement-puzzles.html https://www.craftypuzzles.com/encyclopedia/disentanglement-puzzles.html A ring, loop, cord or rigid piece must be removed while obeying the physical constraints of the object. Puzzle History & Guides https://www.craftypuzzles.com/encyclopedia/folding-and-hinged-puzzles.html https://www.craftypuzzles.com/encyclopedia/folding-and-hinged-puzzles.html Connected parts fold, flip or hinge into a target form while remaining joined. Puzzle History & Guides https://www.craftypuzzles.com/encyclopedia/ https://www.craftypuzzles.com/encyclopedia/ Learn how major puzzle families are classified, recognised and solved, with examples from the Crafty Puzzles archive. Puzzle History & Guides https://www.craftypuzzles.com/encyclopedia/interlocking-puzzles.html https://www.craftypuzzles.com/encyclopedia/interlocking-puzzles.html Pieces lock together so that assembly and disassembly depend on their internal notches and movement order. 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Puzzle History & Guides https://www.craftypuzzles.com/guides/care-for-wooden-puzzles.html https://www.craftypuzzles.com/guides/care-for-wooden-puzzles.html Safe cleaning, storage and adjustment advice for vintage wooden brain teasers and construction puzzles. Puzzle History & Guides https://www.craftypuzzles.com/guides/eight-plus-eight-equals-ninety-one.html https://www.craftypuzzles.com/guides/eight-plus-eight-equals-ninety-one.html A visual orientation brain teaser preserved from the former Crafty Puzzles blog. Puzzle History & Guides https://www.craftypuzzles.com/guides/how-many-steps-puzzle.html https://www.craftypuzzles.com/guides/how-many-steps-puzzle.html A preserved and rewritten arithmetic brain teaser from the former Crafty Puzzles blog. Puzzle History & Guides https://www.craftypuzzles.com/guides/identify-an-unknown-wooden-puzzle.html https://www.craftypuzzles.com/guides/identify-an-unknown-wooden-puzzle.html A practical checklist for identifying an old wooden brain teaser by its shape, pieces, notches and construction. Puzzle History & Guides https://www.craftypuzzles.com/guides/ https://www.craftypuzzles.com/guides/ Read practical guides to wooden burr puzzles, metal disentanglement puzzles, Snake Cubes, old diagrams and puzzle care. Puzzle History & Guides https://www.craftypuzzles.com/guides/metal-disentanglement-puzzles.html https://www.craftypuzzles.com/guides/metal-disentanglement-puzzles.html Techniques for solving wire, ring and metal disentanglement puzzles without bending or forcing the pieces. Puzzle History & Guides https://www.craftypuzzles.com/guides/puzzle-boxes.html https://www.craftypuzzles.com/guides/puzzle-boxes.html Identify sliding-panel, trick-drawer, gravity and interlocking puzzle boxes, then use live and Wayback sources safely. Puzzle History & Guides https://www.craftypuzzles.com/guides/read-puzzle-assembly-diagrams.html https://www.craftypuzzles.com/guides/read-puzzle-assembly-diagrams.html Learn how component keys, arrows, colour highlights, turnover symbols and numbered stages work in puzzle instructions. Puzzle History & Guides https://www.craftypuzzles.com/guides/six-piece-burr-puzzles.html https://www.craftypuzzles.com/guides/six-piece-burr-puzzles.html Understand key pieces, notch patterns and the assembly method used by classic six-piece wooden burr and cross puzzles. Puzzle History & Guides https://www.craftypuzzles.com/guides/snake-cube-guide.html https://www.craftypuzzles.com/guides/snake-cube-guide.html An introduction to the 27-cube Snake Cube, its connected straight and corner sections, and the layer-by-layer solution method. Puzzle History & Guides https://www.craftypuzzles.com/guides/swap-letters-word-puzzle.html https://www.craftypuzzles.com/guides/swap-letters-word-puzzle.html Try a letter-moving word puzzle preserved and rewritten from the former Crafty Puzzles blog, with a hint and explanation. Puzzle History & Guides https://www.craftypuzzles.com/history/crafty-puzzles-story.html https://www.craftypuzzles.com/history/crafty-puzzles-story.html How Crafty Puzzles grew from a small family business selling at shows into an online shop and, later, a free puzzle-solution archive. Puzzle History & Guides https://www.craftypuzzles.com/history/history-of-burr-puzzles.html https://www.craftypuzzles.com/history/history-of-burr-puzzles.html Learn how the six-piece burr or Chinese Cross developed into interlocking wooden cubes, stars, balls and complex coordinate-motion puzzles. Puzzle History & Guides https://www.craftypuzzles.com/history/history-of-jigsaw-puzzles.html https://www.craftypuzzles.com/history/history-of-jigsaw-puzzles.html Discover how eighteenth-century dissected maps developed into wooden, cardboard and three-dimensional jigsaw puzzles. Puzzle History & Guides https://www.craftypuzzles.com/history/history-of-metal-disentanglement-puzzles.html https://www.craftypuzzles.com/history/history-of-metal-disentanglement-puzzles.html Explore wire, ring and cast-metal disentanglement puzzles, from historical Chinese rings to Victorian and modern brain teasers. Puzzle History & Guides https://www.craftypuzzles.com/history/history-of-pentominoes.html https://www.craftypuzzles.com/history/history-of-pentominoes.html Learn how Solomon Golomb named polyominoes in 1953 and how twelve pentomino pieces became a classic packing-puzzle system. Puzzle History & Guides https://www.craftypuzzles.com/history/history-of-puzzle-boxes.html https://www.craftypuzzles.com/history/history-of-puzzle-boxes.html Explore secret-opening boxes, Japanese himitsu-bako, Hakone yosegi marquetry and the development of modern puzzle boxes. Puzzle History & Guides https://www.craftypuzzles.com/history/history-of-puzzles.html https://www.craftypuzzles.com/history/history-of-puzzles.html Follow the development of puzzles from ancient riddles and dissection puzzles to jigsaws, mechanical brain teasers and modern twisty puzzles. Puzzle History & Guides https://www.craftypuzzles.com/history/history-of-rubiks-cube.html https://www.craftypuzzles.com/history/history-of-rubiks-cube.html Follow Ernő Rubik’s 1974 Magic Cube from a three-dimensional design experiment to a worldwide twisty-puzzle phenomenon. Puzzle History & Guides https://www.craftypuzzles.com/history/ https://www.craftypuzzles.com/history/ Explore the history of jigsaws, puzzle boxes, burrs, tangrams, metal puzzles, pentominoes and the Rubik’s Cube. Puzzle History & Guides https://www.craftypuzzles.com/history/puzzle-glossary.html https://www.craftypuzzles.com/history/puzzle-glossary.html Definitions of burr, key piece, coordinate motion, disentanglement, himitsu-bako, pentomino, polycube and other puzzle terms. Puzzle History & Guides https://www.craftypuzzles.com/history/tangrams-and-dissection-puzzles.html https://www.craftypuzzles.com/history/tangrams-and-dissection-puzzles.html Trace dissection puzzles from the Stomachion to the seven-piece tangram and modern shape-making challenges. Puzzle History & Guides