Impossible puzzle

[JDarvall]

Jake, i dont think its a bent nail because he also dose it with a pencil and thay dont bend

yeh, probably right.

I'd thought about skews idea too...... just seems a bit too easy .... and may conflict the rules a bit....I'm not sure.

Seems like the only way is to find a way of bending the pine without breaking.....maybe the pine can be flexed a lot more without breaking as a plank ....ie. before the checkouts are made.... there's a lot more weak points when the timbers got checkouts I'd say.

[sol381]

Was thinking the same thing skew . In one of those pics on the first page it looks like there is a darker area on the wood just above the nail head and about the same size..
Having said that it may be harder to patch a hole the size of a pencil.

[Black Ned]

" there is a darker area on the wook "
What is a wook?

[rrich]

What would happen if you put the whole thing in the freezer? Would the nail contract enough to slip out of the wood?

[Black Ned]

Skew seems to have come up with the best solution.
The wood was drilled from one end and through the centre of the "E". The hole in the top section id larger than the hole in the centre. This is to allow a second smaller drill to be canted just enough to give the illusion that the nail hole was drilled on an angle through the side and not through the first leg. The hole in the first leg is plugged using two matching plugs to suit the grain above and below. The supposed poor cutting is to throw you off - so you don't believe he has the skills to make invisible patches (plugs). The pieces of wood removed from the middle are used for making matching plugs.
Now can I have the prize - I will share with Skew - he is a very intelligent man.

[RobP]

" there is a darker area on the wook "
What is a wook?

Not sure, but they have a large group of fans called wookies.

[Carry Pine]

Hmmm... how well finished are the cross-grained faces?

The timber looks to be fairly bland, so is it possible he drilled all the way through either the top or bottom limb of the E into the centre limb, inserted the nail and then simply plugged the hole?

A careful bit of grain matching, a quick trim/sand of the faces of the limb et voila! End-grain plugs can be easy to match in some bland woods and hard to detect...

No not possible. I have done the plug cutting thing on some timber and i know what to look for not done here.

CP

[Carry Pine]

With those dimentions.....to drill the
Carry....If you lift the nail up....can you bend it over a bit easily? .....the nail may have been softened with a torch of sorts around the middle,,,polished up a bit before inserted,,,,bent into a U...and straighten as it was inserted into the hole. One of the bends be hidden in the middle piece, but the other wouldn't...but could be polished up......be hard to make the bending marks disappear completely though I'd guess.

When you lift the nail by the head, are there any bend marks near the hole ?

nail has not been bent. Puzzle comes alternatively with a pencil or a screw. The hole is neat.

CP

[Lignum]

And dont forget this one all you benders out their

And ill bet anything its a one peice bit of rod and the nut is free moving. So its pointless thinking its in two halves... These are very good puzzles

[rrich]

Attached is a picture of all 4 of Roger's puzzles.

[FXST01]

I think the nail is in 2 parts and most likely screw together.

[Eddie Jones]

It's quite obvious what the answer is.

The guy who made these is obviously a reincarnation of Merlin the Magician. He made them with black magic. Simple.

[jerrylee]

My head is GOING to explode

[Jonno L]

They swear the timber is not steamed, split, bent.

The timber might not be bent, but the nail might be. Bend it at 90 degrees, slowly straighten it and keep feed it through the hole. A few minutes with some pliers with cardboard/rag over them to remove the risk of gouging the nail when straightening it, and bam, the nail is in there.

[Jonno L]

Sorry, I thought I had read all the posts, but obviously not!