Pencil Trick

[Marcel in Longueuil]

Ok,

This is how I would do it:

The piece is cut a bit bigger to start with,
The dadoes are made (look chiseled in the pictures) then the end where the eraser is located was split just above the baseline using a chisel probably
The hole is drilled and the pencil is inserted
The split piece is carefully glued back in place
The assembled piece is sanded to take out chisel and glue marks.

I'm curious to see how far off I am.
Marcel

[utbva]

My thoughts were about the same as Marcel's. However I was thinking of carefully breaking the piece of just above the eraser part, drill the holes, insert the pencil and then carefully glue the piece back on then finish the piece to size. However, I think the glue line would still be visible.

[BobD]

It would depend on how the piece broke, what kind of glue was used, and how well you could match it up. Hypothetically, you could sand it a little bit while the glue was wet, and it would fill in the joint...


Bob

[Rick H]

It works but not real easy.

[CanadianScroller]

I guess if it was easy it wouldnt be called an impossible puzzle.
Thanks for doing the sample for us Rick, and for providing us with a mystery that made everyones brains work a little harder than normal.

[utbva]

What kind of wood can take squeezing like that and then spring back when wet?

[Woodbutcher68]

Originally Posted by utbva

What kind of wood can take squeezing like that and then spring back when wet?

Looks like pine or fir.

[Paul S WI]

Leave it up to Rick to figure out the difficult stuff. Thanks for sharing Rick. Don't think I'll be trying that one though.

[MikeDingas]

One thing I find very suspicious is that the ends of all the interior blocks are very fuzzy with 'sawdust'. Perhaps these blocks were actually chiseled out square and the 'ends' of the blocks are really just thin wafers with a center hole. If so, the 'sawdust' could be glued in place to conceal that the end grains do not match up. I'm finding this harder to explain in writing than what's in my mind. Does any of that make sense?

By the way, the set of pics near the bottom of the page DO show both ends of the puzzle as evidenced by the writing on each end being different.

[CanadianScroller]

Originally Posted by MikeDingas

One thing I find very suspicious is that the ends of all the interior blocks are very fuzzy with 'sawdust'. Perhaps these blocks were actually chiseled out square and the 'ends' of the blocks are really just thin wafers with a center hole. If so, the 'sawdust' could be glued in place to conceal that the end grains do not match up. I'm finding this harder to explain in writing than what's in my mind. Does any of that make sense?

By the way, the set of pics near the bottom of the page DO show both ends of the puzzle as evidenced by the writing on each end being different.

I believe that the end grain of the wood will expand and become fuzzy when it is boiled or soaked in water. I know the fibers sure raise with a waterborne finish

Your theory does make sense though, it would be easier to conceal end grain with sawdust. Part of magic and illusion is misleading the eye. I am glad that this thread was started by Greenfield Bob in the first place.
Every now and then a thread is started that generates so much interest everyone wants to get on board.

Even though we are all avid woodworkers we are all learning something new about the various properties of wood, what it can and cannot do.
When my grandfather was a young lad he used to work in a quarry. They split the stones out of the quarry by driving oak wedges into small cracks and pouring water onto them. The wood expanded enough to break the rocks from the quarry walls.

It would be great to have a series of exercises, similar to the pencil trick that would teach us all various properties of the materials we use.