Just another website to peruse

[Cheops]

GREETINGS ! Puzzle Friends !

As a newbie, just thought I'd introduce to you my puzzle collection website . . . . .

I am a puzzle collector/craftsman from New Hampshire .
I am probably the only serious collector in this state -- at least no one has come forward to rebuff me on that fact . . . . . yet.
I have collected 300+ puzzles in 30+ years, which in a lot of circles is considered very modest
( mine, because of financial restraints) .

When someone asks me, "what kind of puzzles ?" do I have, I simply answer them,
"almost everything other than ordinary cardboard/plastic/wood jigsaw puzzles"
(although I do have a limited-few plastic 3D jigsaw puzzles from Mag-Nif Inc. which still has an ongoing website).



. . . . . The entire website is family-oriented, and is rated 'G' for Goodness . . . . .
Besides getting bombarded with a plethora of animated enhancements, there is also a wealth of information that accompanies most of the pictures.

From past experience as a glassblower in Nashua, NH for 11 years, which involved all aspects of fabrication methods and approaches, including diamond scoring, wet-belt sanding, bench and lathe work, tooling, vacuum systems testing, the use of precision calibration tools . . . and much more -- I have acquired a talent and appreciation for precision that has helped me in these latter years in fabricating my 'creations' (the page displays a nice 'ring menu' at the top) :
http://home.comcast.net/~l-whiting/attbi/MyCreations.html

On this page, one can view the puzzles that I have created new versions of old designs .   
All my wood puzzles are made from North American Eastern white pine, kiln-dried at about 8% humidity, and many of them are flame-torched for grain highlighting, and sometimes given several coats of Watco Danish Oil Finish ( just to enhance its aesthetics by way of contrast from other areas . . . such as the contrast between natural blonde-color to flame-torched areas), making sure not to apply any where the puzzles' mechanical sliding maneuvers would be interfered with.

 

There are a few 'special'  pages that I have created displaying a particular group of puzzles definitely worth mentioning :

*   High-Level, computer-generated burrs I like to call "Torturous Burrs" :
http://home.comcast.net/~l-whiting/attbi/TorturousBurrs.html

*   One very interesting page in particular, is the story behind The Tower of Hanoi puzzle .   Here you will see a progression timeline that will absolutely astound you :
http://home.comcast.net/~l-whiting/attbi/TowerOfCreation_story.html

*   There is another special page solely dedicated to a fairly rare puzzle which originally sold for $49.99 and was acknowledged as "The Hexadecimal Puzzle", the first to be made by Binary Arts (1985-2003) -- now called Think Fun (2003 - ) :
http://home.comcast.net/~l-whiting/attbi/Hexadecimal.html

Well, I hope you enjoy surfing my website.
Thank You.

[Canuck]

Well as someone who's visited your website on many occasions, I highly recomend it to everyone but especially for those not all that familiar with the puzzle 'thang'...well worth a good look, that's for sure, thanks again for joining us here Richard!
BTW, I like your new handle, although I'm sure there's a funny story there

[Cheops]

Thank You, Canuck.  I appreciate your kind comments.

<<< BTW, I like your new handle, although I'm sure there's a funny story there. >>>
Funny you should ask.
Well, I could have gone with  '14gordianknot'  . . . . .

This is my Ebay nickname . It is an interesting choice because the number 14 is part of a magic 6-digit number 142857 . If you were to take this number and multiply it each time consecutively by 1 through 6, you will find that each of the answers has the same numbers in it as the magic number itself -- and in sequential order -- even though each of the first digits of each answer is different . Multiply the magic number by 7 and see what happens . Beyond that, an interesting pattern starts to emerge.

142857 x 1 = 142857
142857 x 2 = 285714
142857 x 3 = 428571
142857 x 4 = 571428
142857 x 5 = 714285
142857 x 6 = 857142

142857 x 7 = 999999

142857 x 8 = 1142856 see a pattern starting here?
142857 x 9 = 1285713

The word 'gordianknot' is the combined form of Gordian Knot, a wire puzzle sold by Pentangle of England, as can be seen on my website page titled  'My Creations' .
This puzzle is one I consider to be one of the few string-and-wire puzzles out there in Puzzledom to be very difficult .   Consider for a moment, the fact that the string is attached to the central straight wire, which is closed off on each end.   One has to naturally ponder the conundrum of how this string is able to possibly come off this puzzle.   But it does!  Isn't the science of topology a wonderful thing?

-- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- 

'Cheops'  is named after the Pyramid of Cheops on the Giza Plateau in Cairo, Egypt.  I was once fascinated (still am) with this subject concerning the only remaining member of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World, and even purchased an oversized, 432-page hardcover book -- written by Peter Tompkins -- on just this one subject.

~ and ~

Back in the 70s I became a member of the then fashionable regime of the CBer.  My 'handle' was Cheops.  Whenever I got on the air, I used my Fender guitar amplifier's echo system to simulate the presence of my actually being inside the King's Chamber of the Cheops Pyramid -- with 200 feet of stone thickness surrounding me.

~ plus ~

It's shorter than '14gordianknot' , making it easier to remember.