After the Christmas rush there was a sale on at one of those novelty stores.

I saw a "Puzzle Lock" for sale and it was steel, good looking and cheap in the sale price so I thought I'd get it for my wife who fancies herself a bit of a Puzzle Buff.

I brought it home, handed it to my wife who completed it in seconds and handed it back to me.

In the end it wasn't much of a puzzle. It was a trick and instead of feeling inspired by discovering the solution you felt cheated.

So this got me doing a little research and I stumbled accross some Cast Puzzles by Hanayama.

After a little investigation these seemed to be what I was hoping the Puzzle Lock was going to be when I picked it up.

These are well made finely crafted cast metal puzzles coming in a range of difficulty from the very simple to the rewardingly complex.

I handed my wife one of the difficult ones, she pulled a face, went to work and realised she had no idea immediately how to solve it. She's still working on it now and it's amazing to discover just how much fun these little brain teasers can be.

Are any of you guys into these types of puzzles?

Any recommendations for Puzzle Boxes & Finger Traps?