After thinking about it for a while, I realized that the best way to make the board was to simply create a walnut and maple cutting board. Buy gluing up strips of maple and walnut I was able to cut strips off of that and reassemble them into the classic chessboard pattern.


I originally thought of turning these on the lathe but quickly gave up on that plan, as I lack the skills to do so. But I am a huge fan of modern art and minimalist objects. And started to do some research and eventually came across a set created by Lanier Graham in 1966 and fell in love with its simplicity and really enjoyed how all of the pieces fit in a tiny little box.

This was a fun and really quick build, A co-worker brought a puzzle into the office since I have been creating a handful recently.

I took one look and thought… I can make that. He called it a Cherry Tree Puzzle.

This has to be one of my favorite things to look at. I love how Walnut has so much character.

This puzzle is actually very simple to make.

Starting off I took some stock that had a number of ugly checks and cracks down the length. After processing the wood I marked my first piece to get an estimate for now long each piece would be.

Well, it was a cold day in the shop, sitting around -10c. I wanted to build a Burr puzzle that I had come across in a store and thought it would be a fun project to recreate using some scrap walnut.

I saw an old puzzle called “Original IQ puzzle” and figured it was simple enough that I could also build one. I bought…