05-Mar-2025
This morning, it was raining again. However, the rain stopped later, and the humidity started to drop. So, I quickly attached the Kannuki panels to the 3-sun cube puzzle box. These panels are attached to two sides of the box, but they are not exactly the same. Some sides are more affected by climate changes than others. Today, I attached the panels to the side that is less likely to be affected by humidity. I hope the humidity drops a little more tomorrow.
You may be able to see it in the photo, but the Kannuki panels on this box have a wide adhesive surface on both the top and bottom. This makes it relatively stable when attaching them. In terms of numbers, the entire panel is about 8.5 cm, and approximately 7 cm of that is the adhesive surface. Because of this, the panel is less likely to warp by slight climate changes.
After that, I started working on the Aruki (moving panels) for the Hexagon puzzle box, as planned. This process takes time, so unfortunately, I couldn’t finish everything today. For a standard puzzle box, the Aruki is completed after several steps. However, for this box, I need to make some fine adjustments at the end. Depending on the method, these adjustments might not be necessary, but I believe a final tweak is needed to ensure the mechanism fits perfectly. Today, I managed to complete the basic shape of the Aruki, but I decided to leave the fine adjustments for tomorrow. After that, I will move on to attaching them. Since this box requires five Aruki panels per box, this step also takes longer than usual. Looking at the entire process, I can see that this box requires more process and takes more time to make. However, the mechanism itself only has six steps, which makes it tricky to balance the price. For now, I plan to continue producing it in small quantities based on demand.
Today, in addition to that, I also prepared materials for Ichimastu Yosegi and a small batch of Mame puzzle boxes.Ichimatsu Yosegi is a sheet-like marquetry used for the sides of the box. I prepare it according to sizes like 4-sun or 4.2-sun. Also, since I haven’t made Mame puzzle boxes recently, I’m planning to produce a very small batch—about 30 pieces—of the 18-step mechanism in the near future.
