Just Get Them a (Very Fancy) Wooden Hand-Cut Puzzle
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As a kid I loved doingpuzzleswith my father, especially around the holidays. We would get a giant jigsaw — usually an old-timey Christmas image filled with people ice-skating and horse-drawn carriages in a snowy, festive landscape — and steadily work on it for weeks. After it was completed, we would glue thepuzzle onto a poster boardfor posterity. (The puzzles must have either been by Americana paintersCharles WysockiorJane Wooster Scott, whose work was extremely popular in the ’80s and ’90s.)
I don’t have too much time for puzzles anymore, but when winter comes along, it’s one of my favorite ways to slow down. Lately, the only puzzles I want to put together are ones made of wood and hand-cut by artisans. They’re unlike any other puzzle I’ve ever tried. The pieces have nonstandard shapes or “tricks,” like straight internal color-line cuts and false edges, and “whimsies,” or special pieces that go along with the theme of the image (a sleeping dog, an elm tree, a flying eagle), making them more challenging and rewarding than the average paperboard jigsaw. Each puzzle is one of a kind, even if the picture is the same.
As for how they’re actually made: AtElms Puzzles, which was founded in Maine by Betsy Stuart in 1987, each one is cut by a craftsperson whouses a scroll sawto cut shapes into a slab of five-ply mahogany. They do the whole puzzle freehand (except for the whimsies, which they draw out ahead of time), moving the board around as they go. It looks a bit like they’re working on a sewing machine. Elms employees eight artisans, all of whom have their own distinct style and signature pieces.
Elms recently sent me a 239-piece puzzle of a lakeside lodge to try out, and once I started it, I couldn’t stop. I stayed up until 2 a.m. to finish it — partly because the puzzle is just harder since the pieces are irregular, and partly because Ihadto know what the finished product looked like. (Elms famously does not include the puzzle image on the packaging, though I suppose you could easily look it up by name on the website.) The pieces have a lovely heft and tactility to them, and because they’re thick, you sort of slide each one in from above with a little tap. It’s incredibly satisfying. The pieces interlock so precisely that you could lift a corner of a completed puzzle and pick the whole thing up without it falling apart.
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As gorgeous as they are, these puzzles are expensive. The smallest puzzle (50 pieces) costs $150, and the biggest ready-to-ship puzzle (380 pieces) currently on the sitegoes for $1,045. Elms also offersmade-to-orderandbespokepuzzles whose prices start at $150. And yet, Elms has a bit of a cult following among puzzlers, with devotees even requesting certain artisans. I spoke to several loyal customers, including a couple based in Oregon who has been collecting Elms puzzles for 30 or so years and has spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on them. (One of the first puzzles they bought was a custom 1,400-piece design. They had originally asked for a 2,000-piece puzzle, but Stuart, the owner, talked them down, saying that it would be too difficult. It took them 18 months to complete it.)
For people who don’t care to collect luxury puzzles or simply can’t afford to, Elms offers a more accessiblerental program. Customers can rent puzzles for four weeks at a time, with pricing starting at $72 for a 300- to 449-piece puzzle. Aside from Elms, the other hand-cut wooden puzzle companies to know areStave Puzzles, which was founded in 1974 in Vermont, and New York–basedPar Puzzles, which was founded in 1932. More mainstream among puzzlers, Stave also has a robustrental program.
Within the world of wooden puzzles is the more affordable laser-cut puzzle. They can be just as beautiful, but you can tell the difference in construction. Like hand-cut puzzles, they are also individually designed by artisans, where each line and piece is digitally hand-drawn and sculpted, and instead of being hand-cut, the design is cut with a laser. In my experience, the laser-cut puzzles I’ve tried tend to have larger, more intricate pieces with finer knobs. Overall, the pieces feel sharper and more polished than hand-cut ones, but they lack the materiality and natural character of the hand-cut ones. (The laser cuts also smell slightly of burnt wood, a not unpleasant scent, though it is noticeable.) The major players in this space areLiberty Puzzlesin Boulder, Colorado (Brooke Shields is a fan), andStumpCraft, based out of Calgary, Canada. In terms of price, laser-cut puzzles are significantly cheaper. A 57-piece mini from StumpCraftcosts $33, compared to $150 for a 50-piece Elms. At Liberty, you can get a 92-piece puzzlefor $44.
I tried a couple of puzzles from StumpCraft and they were a pleasure to complete. Themini ones, which measure 4.7 inches square, are great for when you want a little mental break. Even my first-grader and preschooler got into it, putting together a piece or two on their own. StumpCraft’s special pieces (which they call WhimWhams) can get pretty wacky. One of the puzzles I tried even had a 3-D element, where I could pop out a few pieces to create a standing Muskoka chair (that’s an Adirondack chair for Americans). StumpCraft’s founder, Jasen Robillard, designs many of the puzzles himself. The laser-cut puzzles don’t interlock as closely, however. I couldn’t pick them up by the corner in the way that I could with the Elms. Still, they’re extremely fun to do.
The one thing I will say about all the wooden puzzle companies out there is that their artwork has not caught up to the level of sophistication and taste as that of some of thetrendier cardboard-based jigsaw puzzleson the market. The pictures can be a little bit cheesy, but there are some nice designs if you dig a little. Or you can order a custom puzzle using your own image.
Over Thanksgiving weekend, I brought out my Elms and StumpCraft puzzles and arranged them on the dining table. The whole family, plus my father, my sister, and her boyfriend, who were all visiting from out of town, would stop and fiddle with the puzzles for a few minutes (or longer) and then go about their day. A little grazing table, but for puzzling. Because they’re nice enough to be heirloom items, and because I always discover something new every time I redo one, I hope to make it a bit of a holiday tradition, reviving what my parents started when I was a child.
The puzzling fever can be contagious. As the Oregon couple told me, “We realized that when our nieces and nephews would come over, they all got hooked. They would put down their techno toys and actually puzzle and talk and interact and sit silent. We’ve been gifting these over 30-some years, since 1994, and what it’s done with a lot of dear, close friends and family is exactly that — they do it as a family activity and they love it.”
Below are some of the puzzles I’d like to try next, all of which would make excellent gifts for the puzzler — or puzzle-curious — in your life.
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There are plenty of precut Elms Puzzles ready for holiday shipping, including this 8-by-7-inch rooster made with 107 pieces and regular borders.
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Or try this winter-themed 292-piece puzzle that measures 13-by-13 inches.
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I like this floral still life by 19th-century Prussian American painter Severin Roesen.
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An irregular border — as in one without straight edges or square corners — makes the puzzle that much more challenging to complete.
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Like Elms, Stave Puzzles also makes hand-cut puzzles and is more widely known among puzzlers. Many of Stave’s puzzles are made to order, but there are a few that are in stock and ready to ship. This holiday-themed puzzle has 75 pieces and measures 10-by-7.5 inches.
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I’m intrigued by this 100-piece chessboard. It’s made to order (and extremely expensive), but it’s one of Stave’s best-selling puzzles.
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A laser-cut mini puzzle from Stumpcraft can be a nice, more accessible entry into the world of wooden puzzles. They’re small enough to do on a coffee break and come in a box that’s perfectly stocking size. I prefer the impressionistic nature scenes to the other artwork available on StumpCraft.
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This 603-piece puzzle has a difficulty level of five out of five and includes a large cat hidden within it and a “clowder” of 30 cat-shaped Whim-Whams (and pesky mice) surrounding it. A charming gift for the cat-lover puzzler.
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This large puzzle, which measures around 15 inches square, features many more angular pieces than the one above does. While this one has a lower difficulty level of four out of five, I imagine the number of straight edges would make it pretty challenging. There are words and numbers scattered throughout as well.
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A Christmas-themed Snoopy puzzle from Liberty Puzzles, one of the bigger laser-cut puzzle companies in the U.S.
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This 13-by-17-inch laser-cut puzzle is designed with extremely intricate pieces, including zipperlike edges and instrument-playing musicians.
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