My Favorite 15 Puzzle Sites

My collection of puzzles grew once I began to travel to countries in Europe and had an opportunity to find special stores, like Hamley's in London.  But the real passion blossomed with the growth of the internet and tools such as Ebay that helped create a worldwide marketplace.  The best puzzles are not mass produced, and are not in your local stores, and are often made in limited production by skilled craftsmen worldwide.  The internet has been a way to share information and bind together a worldwide community of creators, collectors and enthusiasts.  Though my list is long (a few hundred links) and in seemingly constant flux, here is my attempt to list and organize some of my favorite puzzle sites.

Okay I give up... this is a taste of the sites.  Many others have made a job of sorting and organizing them and I will not attempt to duplicate there feat.  I actually went back through this list and reduced the number of entries on this list three times, to give you my top 15.   The title of this blog started as my "Top puzzle sites", then "My top 40 puzzle sites", and finally "My top 15".  Lol   Happy surfing!

Resources:

The best puzzle site, without equal, has been Puzzle World at http://www.johnrausch.com/puzzleworld/.  This site was created by John Rausch, and is a fantastic collection of images that spans the collection of puzzles.  Although it has not been heavily updated in recent years, it is still a repository of the best work available over the last few decades.

Puzzle Place is the best wiki out there that I have found, and is continually updated.  Anything you want to know is probably on or linked from this site. The gallery alone has 2300 puzzle images. I think this is the current best source of information. : http://www.puzzle-place.com/wiki/Main_Page

The Puzzle Museum:  http://www.puzzlemuseum.com/

IBM's Burr Site: http://www.research.ibm.com/BurrPuzzles/

It is all about the geometry: http://www.puzzleman.com/

And More Geometry, in this case VRML: http://www.polyhedra.jp/index-e.html


Puzzles for Sale: 

In my opinion Mr Puzzle, of Australia, is one of the best sources for quality burr puzzles.  Brian and Sue Young have given me years of wonderful service and fantastic puzzles, especially the limited editions that Brian has made over the years.  http://www.mrpuzzle.com.au/  You will see in a future blogs that they have played a special role in my inspiration.

Bill Cutler's Burr site, which is one of the best designers and craftsman in the market world:  http://home.comcast.net/~billcutler/index.html 

I first discovered Pentangle Puzzles in Hamleys of London, before the internet:  http://www.pentanglepuzzles.co.uk/

On of the best sources for Kumiki Puzzles:  http://www.cleverwood.com/

A great site for reselling your puzzles and open discussions: http://www.cubicdissection.com/

Puzzle Software:

This free software has really improved over the years.  if you are a serious designer or enthusaist you have to have this tool.  and of course please donate to the cause. : http://burrtools.sourceforge.net/

Blogs

My new favorite puzzle blog, Brian's Damn Puzzle Blog, has lead me to many other bloggers on puzzles: http://mechanical-puzzles.blogspot.com/

Puzzle Organizations:

The Nederlandse Kubus Club or "Dutch Cubist Club" is a club of puzzle-enthusiasts founded in 1981. : http://cff.helm.lu/

Puzzling Art

Great bronze puzzling sculptures.  A fantastic example of digital metal printing:
http://bulatov.org/