It seems that the rainy season has still not officially ended in our area, but the hot weather continues today. The custom-made boxes for Hakone that I made last month were slightly different in size from my usual boxes. They were about halfway between 5-sun and 6-sun. The reason is that the requested yosegi sheets were not originally made for puzzle boxes, but probably for another use. When I calculated the best size to use the sheets without waste, the boxes ended up being this size.
I often receive requests like this. Mame puzzle boxes are especially common. A Mame puzzle box (1-sun box = 4 cm = about 1.6 inches) is very small, so the panels are also cut into very small pieces. This means that I can usually make several panels from a yosegi sheet, regardless of its original size. Therefore, when I have yosegi sheets left over from other production, I use them to make Mame puzzle boxes. There is no specific yosegi sheet made especially for Mame puzzle boxes. Even normally, I make them by cutting panels from larger sheets.
Changing the size like this may not be something that many other workshops do, because it is a little troublesome. Changing the size means changing the dimensions of the box parts. I need to change the width and length of the side panels and axis panels. Then I also need to adjust the size of the Aruki, or sliding panels, and the internal parts. I also use many different jigs during production, and these must be newly made for the different size. Many craftsmen already have dedicated jigs for each box size. For example, they use jigs made specifically for 4-sun boxes and produce the boxes according to those jigs. In fact, this may be the most difficult part. Running a puzzle box workshop does not leave much room for extra work because production already takes a lot of time. Making these changes can sometimes cause a loss. For this reason, continuing to make boxes in the same size is the most efficient way.
I accept these requests by adding a little extra to the production cost to cover the additional work. Even so, there are still some troublesome parts. However, I find it harder to repeat the same work over and over. I enjoy making something different like this, so this kind of work may suit me better. I have listed one box on my website that I made at the same time as this custom order. I filmed a video of it yesterday and plan to post it on YouTube and social media. It has a 36-step mechanism.
