Haleslock #2

Why #2? Why obviously because another one was released before :)

I already published a review of the haleslock#1 here, so time to speak quickly about this one.

Shane Hales, designer and crafter of this haleslock series learnt about his mistakes and released more of this lock. Guess what: it was sold out super fast, and maybe even faster than what he thought.

What are the differences and common points between this puzzle and the other one.
First, both are not crafted from scratch but are modified locks that can be bought in the market.
Then, both require several steps to open even if this one require fewer steps though.
Both are very niceley designed and are quality locks that a serious metal collector and/or serious trick locks collector should have in his collection.

 Like the previous lock in the series, the keys (here 2 and not only one as for haleslock #1) are attached to the lock. However here the keys can be used directly inside the lock because the chain is long enough, which was not the case for the preceding lock.

In my opinion, this trick lock is closer to a trick lock (ie: more a trick than a sequence of moves to solve) than to a real sequencial discovery trick lock.
Indeed it does not have a lock of steps. The hardest being the first one and after that it's pretty straight forward. If you have ever played with haleslock #1 you will notice that the difficulty is less high. The price also is less high.

I wish the puzzle was a bit more difficult but I like the effort put in this lock and I think Shane Hales is definitely a genius. I hope some more in the series are in the mind of Shane.
If you have a look at his website, several puzzles include locks or keys, like his imitation locks and the puzzle called "turn the plug" which I hope he could craft some more.

Time to fold....astonishing foldings!!!

Below you will find some foldings I folded recently. Only one sheet of paper. No glue, no scotch tape used!
For some I put the 2 sides and when the folding is backlit. For other (like 3D foldings), as they are not suitable to be backlit, I put only 2 pictures. They are super time-consuming, but the result is worth the effort I feel :-)

Hope you will enjoy them. And as usual they can be sold!

 

 

  

 

Haleslock #1

A newscommer (well, not really new now!) in the beautiful world of puzzles came, and guess what: he crafts very nice puzzles!
His name: Shane Hales!

His puzzles are pretty rare because made in very small quantities, so don't expect to play with one! Just enjoy the nice looks, and that's it. Yes, I know it's frustrating and I am definitely the first person to be furstrated to see that I won't be able to own his beautiful wooden puzzles.

Pretty recently (some months ago) he released some sequencial discovery trick locks. Being good with locks, offering services related to protection and lock, he naturally made lock puzzles. Logical way :-)

If you see some comments on blogs about his puzzles, you notice that the guy does not show off and modestly says that he produces puzzles that are far from being perfect and won't be able to achieve as good quality as compared to other craftmen. Come one! This is false, totally false. Even if I cannot judge about his wooden puzzles, in my mind the Haleslock #1 is a very nice first steps into trick lock puzzles. Sure, this is not a popplock, but who cares?!

So what about the lock itself? This is a modified lock obviously with a stange thing on a side under Shanes' signature and a key attached with kind of a key ring.
Sure, the key will be useful, but how to free it? This will be the first step of your journey. I am sure, for those who played with this puzzle, they may have had some difficulties with this steps. But you will definitely smile with an "ah-ha" moment when you solve this first part of the puzzle.
Then you will have to perform several steps to solve the lock.

Solving the puzzle was not super hard but very pleasant and I can say that this is a nice lock for anyone who likes this kind of puzzles. In my mind Shane did a very great job and the feeling about this lock is shared among the puzzlers: a nice lock to have, to play with or both!

The puzzle had a lot of success and demand was way higher than offer. Hence, Shane, for his other lock design, chose to make more puzzles.....but again demand was higher than offer. I will talk a bit about his other lock in another post later.