It was very sunny again from the morning today. Recently, we have not had much rain. In June, the rainy season will arrive, bringing many days of continuous rain, so this is the time of year when we can still enjoy the sunny weather. Even so, today was especially hot, and the temperature was already high from the morning. I came to the workshop again in the afternoon and spent some time doing small tasks and continuing my work.
Starting tomorrow, this month will already enter its second half, so I am planning to continue moving forward with this month’s production schedule. However, my work is currently a little behind schedule. It seems the main reason is that making the hexagonal puzzle boxes took more time than usual. Right now, I am working on the 2-sun cube puzzle boxes and the 5-sun puzzle boxes, and the remaining project had not been fully decided yet, although I already knew it would be a 4-sun puzzle box. Then this morning, I decided to make the 21-step version this time. Some of them are requested by overseas shops, so that is also one reason why I chose the 21-step design. The requested design for this production is the usual style: traditional yosegi patterns on the top and bottom panels, with Ichimatsu yosegi side panels.
Come to think of it, I cannot even remember the last time I made the 21-step version. I think I only made it once or so last year. Even here in Japan, requests for the 4-sun 21-step puzzle boxes are not very common. One reason is that many other craftsmen already make them, so there are already quite a lot of them on the market. Because of that, in many cases I receive requests for the 27-step version instead. Some other Hakone craftsmen also make the 5-sun 27-step puzzle boxes, but I am the only craftsman making the 4-sun 27-step puzzle boxes. Today, for a little while, I checked the parts and specifications for the 21-step mechanism for the first time in quite a while. Since it has been so long since I last made it, I do not remember every detail perfectly anymore 😅 Like the 18-step and 14-step mechanisms, the 21-step mechanism is made using 6.5 mm Aruki panels. It is basically like taking the 18-step mechanism and extending the movement by another half rotation to increase the number of steps. Because of that, the thickness of the Aruki panels, which is important for increasing the number of movements, also stays at 6.5 mm. However, since the movement count increases, the internal parts need to be changed slightly. The photo shows the internal parts for the 21-step mechanism, and they are quite different from the 18-step version. The 18-step version is actually very similar to the 14-step mechanism, where the bottom panel of the box is fixed. On the other hand, the 21-step mechanism is more similar to the 27-step mechanism, because the internal structure becomes slightly stair-shaped, although it is only few additional step higher. Because of that, the method for making the parts also becomes closer to the way I make the 27-step mechanism parts (I will write more about that another time). I will write more about it in the blog from tomorrow onward as well.
