Stewart Coffin is one of the most influential mechanical puzzle designers alive. Over nearly six decades he has produced more than 500 original puzzle designs, written the definitive book on the craft (Geometric Puzzle Design), compiled the field's most comprehensive reference (AP-ART: A Compendium of Geometric Puzzles), and collaborated with nearly every serious wooden puzzle manufacturer in the world.
If you've held a polyhedral interlocking puzzle in the last 50 years, there's a real chance Stewart designed it or inspired the person who did.
Why I love Stewart's work
Stewart is fascinated by unusual geometric shapes. He picks up a strange polyhedron - a rhombic dodecahedron, an irregular tetrahedron, a six-pointed star - and asks what happens when you split it into pieces that have to fit back together in only one way. His puzzles are essentially explorations of how unusual geometries interact with each other, and that obsession is what makes a Coffin puzzle feel different from anyone else's.
The Three-Piece Block is the perfect example. Just three pieces - it should be trivial. It is genuinely difficult, and the difficulty doesn't come from clever locking mechanisms or trick rotations. It comes from the geometry itself. The shape of the assembly is unusual enough that your brain refuses to see the solution.
What the puzzle community says
Stewart has been called "the most outstanding designer and maker of interlocking puzzles that the world has ever seen." His book Geometric Puzzle Design is treated as the foundational text for anyone serious about designing or making puzzles. His free compendium AP-ART is a 200+ page atlas of his original designs and is essential reading inside the community. Wikipedia credits him with over 400 designs; the actual count is well past 500. For a visual tour of his work over the years, Cubic Dissection's marketplace holds a beautiful gallery of past Coffin puzzles produced by master craftsmen like Eric Fuller and Scott Peterson.
Almost everyone inside the puzzle world knows Stewart's name, and many of today's most respected designers cite him as a direct influence.
Where to start in his catalog
I carry four of Stewart's classics in 3D-printed plastic, and there are two great places to start.
Start with Three-Piece Block. It's the most famous Coffin puzzle by a wide margin - originally designed in response to a request from a New York advertising agency working with Citibank, who wanted hundreds of copies for a corporate sales promotion. Coffin himself thought it would be easy. His friends quickly told him otherwise. Three pieces, unusual geometry, surprisingly hard. It's the perfect introduction to how Coffin thinks.
The other entry point is 6-Piece Star. It happens to be one of the very first wooden puzzles I owned in my life, so it has a personal place in my catalog. Six interlocking pieces, an iconic geometric form, and a clean introduction to the polyhedral assembly puzzles Stewart is best known for.
From there, try Four Fit for a brutal 4-piece packing challenge, and Pieces of 8 for one of his celebrated tray packing designs.
FAQ
Who is Stewart Coffin?
Stewart Coffin is an American puzzle designer, author, and craftsman, widely considered the most influential designer of polyhedral interlocking puzzles in modern history. He has designed more than 500 original puzzles since 1968, written Geometric Puzzle Design (the field's definitive book), and compiled AP-ART, the most comprehensive reference in the modern puzzle world.
What makes a Coffin puzzle different?
Coffin's puzzles are built around unusual geometric shapes and how those shapes interact. His difficulty doesn't come from trick mechanisms - it comes from geometry. The Three-Piece Block has only three pieces and is still confusing precisely because the assembly shape is so unfamiliar to the human eye.
Which Coffin puzzle should I buy first?
Either Three-Piece Block or 6-Piece Star. Three-Piece Block has the famous Citibank backstory and demonstrates Coffin's core idea: three pieces, no tricks, just hard geometry. 6-Piece Star is one of the very first wooden puzzles I owned myself, and the iconic star shape is a beautiful Coffin classic.
Do you sell the wooden versions?
No, we produce them in 3D printing, since we aim to make great designs as available as possible. Stewart's wooden editions are crafted by master makers in exotic woods like cocobolo, bubinga, and rosewood, and you can browse a beautiful gallery of past Coffin puzzles on the Cubic Dissection marketplace. Stewart has given us his blessing to make the plastic versions you see here.
Where can I read more about Stewart?
His book Geometric Puzzle Design is the definitive read, and his free AP-ART compendium is an essential reference inside the puzzle community. Cubic Dissection also maintains a marketplace gallery of past Coffin puzzles produced in fine wood.
If you enjoy Stewart's work, also explore puzzles by Andrew Crowell, Frederic Boucher, and Osanori Yamamoto - some of the other modern designers whose puzzles I'm honored to carry.
