I love puzzles where you have to open containers, like Japanese puzzle boxes and the Mexican box. But I think the Vault made by Chazpro is my favorite. What are some other good ones?

There was a great one sold by Tannen's in the 1950's and 60's. It was a two-tone wood box that looked impossible to make in the first place, and was even more difficult to open. I first saw it in a very old catalog, and about 13 years ago, found one on Ron Allesi's used list, bought it, and have never been happier! I have quite a few puzzle-type boxes, but the very best are the Kamei boxes (original if you can get 'em). Try to find the "Hamburger" box or the "cup or coffee" box. I have the "giant die" puzzle box. INGENIOUS!

Steve Thomas

Thanks, Steve. I'll be searching!

I have a huge brass lock made in India. There are four different keys all required to open it, but no visible keyhole! The whole thing appears to be one solid hunk of brass with a shackle protruding. It’s a very cool item.

-Reg {*}

I have something similar to the lock that Reg has. The lock that I have looks like an ordinary lock, you can even give someone a key and they probably wont be able to open it. There is a keyhole where keyholes normally are, but that is just a hole cut in the front of the lock. That hole is just there to trick people. The real hole has to be "activated". It's really cool I bought mine at Lee Valey a few years ago. Here's a link:
http://www.leevalley.com/hardware/page.a......tegory=3
Night_Crawler

Hey Night_Crawler, mine is from there too! (My wife used to work there.) Here is a link to it. I was a little mixed up, it only takes 3 keys, but 4 "operations" to open it. This place has a lot of cool stuff like this.

-Reg {*}

I found Stewart Coffin's Pennyhedron in Fine Woodworking magazine back in the 80's. It was a counterintuitive box with 12 sides. Check out this web page:

http://www.johnrausch.com/PuzzlingWorld/chap15b.htm

You can purchase the book on CDROM that has the plans. (The Puzzling World of Polyhedral Dissections
By Stewart T. Coffin) I made one once, but have not yet purchased the disk.

Mr. Coffin is a master puzzle craftsman.