On August 10th & 11th, in Antwerp, Belgium, the participants at the 2002 International Puzzle Party voted to award the Puzzler’s Choice Award to Kagen Schaefer’s Block Puzzle Box.

The makers of the IPP Puzzle Design Contest entries were not identified. Each participant at IPP 22 reviewed all 61 puzzles entered in the competition and voted for their five most favorite puzzles, based on the merits of the puzzles themselves.
When the votes were counted, Kagen Schaefer’s Block Box was the #1 favorite puzzle.

But the Block Puzzle Box is so impressive that it also won one of two Judge’s First Prizes for exceptional design!

The official results of the contest are here.

The other puzzle Kagen entered into the contest was his Twisted Burr.

To open this puzzle box you must first solve the compound sliding block puzzle that composes the lid. To see a close-up photo of the sliding block lid click here. This puzzle box is an innovation in puzzle box design. To the best of our knowledge, nothing like this has ever been built before. It’s Kagen’s original idea.

Kagen is a superb woodworker and like a jeweler, the miniature scale fine woodworking details are exquisite. The sliding block puzzles are easy to manipulate and nice to touch. Each of the many blocks have beveled edges.

This box is made entirely of wood, mostly saplee wood. No metal is used in any way. Even the “pivot riser” hinges are wooden, and were designed and handmade by Kagen.

The Block Boxes feature a hand planed finish. Hand planes bring out a lot of character in the wood that gets lost with sanding. Furniture is very rarely planed anymore. It is extremely time consuming and takes a great deal of experience to use and sharpen planes. Kagen can justify using planes with his work because it is considerably smaller in scale than furniture.

As you may imagine, this is not an easy puzzle box to solve. Each of 4 different configurations of the sliding block puzzle lid must be solved, in order, before the box can be opened. All together it takes 81 moves before you can open the lid. To see this box opened, click here - then use your browser’s ”Back” button to return to this page.

 Each Block Puzzle Box is numbered by Kagen  and bears his signature brand mark on the inside of the lid. A glossy, color solution booklet and a Certificate of Authenticity are provided with each box. This box is being made in a limited edition. Twelve boxes were made in 2002. A final batch of Block Boxes was completed in April, 2003. They are all now in private collections.