Why are Wood Puzzles the Best?

Wooden puzzles require a delicate hand and hours of careful cutting techniques to be employed, which is why they are considered to be fine works of craftsmanship. Every puzzle piece is precisely designed, and some of them take up to 400 hours to make!

Wood puzzles are the best because they’re very durable and long-lasting due to their build quality. Additionally, there are some wooden puzzles that are cut by a laser, which ensures that all pieces fit together perfectly.

The first ever jigsaw puzzle was created by Johns Spilsbury around 1760, and it consisted of a cardboard map that was cut into pieces in order to make studying geography much easier. However, around the 19^th century, the idea of wooden puzzles came into being, with many wooden puzzles being launched in the market for the wealthy and the elite at the time. The wood used to do these puzzles at the time was either mahogany or cedar. By the end of the 19^th century, puzzle makers took great strides in making these puzzles much more appealing and precise.

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What Are Wooden Puzzles?

The name makes the nature of these puzzles very self-explanatory; however, wooden puzzles consist of a few pieces of wood, initially cut from a jigsaw.

When you assemble all of these wooden pieces, they form a visual image that matches the picture shown on the box.

When first introduced, wooden jigsaw puzzles were carved from a special tool known as the jig saw. The jig saw uses reciprocating blades in order to cut irregular curves onto already stenciled designs.

Although the jigsaw could be used to cut into materials such as metal, it was normally used to cut into wood in order to make wooden jigsaw puzzles.

During the 19^th century, these wooden puzzles were seen as a product made exclusively for wealthy families and children and focused on puzzles for educational use rather than as a source of entertainment.

In order to cut labor costs and time to make these puzzles, they consisted of fewer but larger puzzle pieces, as compared to the mainstream cardboard puzzles, which were made for the general public and for education and entertainment purposes as well.

Most wooden jigsaw puzzles are made to be much more challenging, compared to their cardboard counterparts, due to the versatility they offer when doing the wooden puzzle.

Why They Are the Best – The Benefits

There are many wooden puzzles in the market which are considered to be works of art. This is because some of them have been handcrafted to offer a precise puzzle.

Many puzzle enthusiasts prefer wooden puzzles because, when crafting such a puzzle by hand, each piece has to be meticulously hand-cut by a skilled crafter. When doing puzzles by hand, crafters have to use their imagination in order to create a unique and original art piece.

In addition to the precise design, there are other reasons why many people consider wooden puzzles to be the best ones out there, due to which these puzzles are sought after in the community.

Overall Durability and Longer Lasting

The most obvious reason why people consider wooden puzzles to be the best is due to how long-lasting they are. The best wooden puzzles out there comprise very strong wooden materials, which are robust and can last for years without using any of their quality dimensions.

Unlike cardboard, each wooden piece is stronger and rigid, not susceptible to any wear and tear as compared to the cardboard puzzle pieces, which can degrade, and the edges can also tatter as time goes by.

Some famous wooden puzzle pieces, such as Wentworth puzzles, have lasted so long that they have been passed down generations and have been used as valuable family heirlooms.

Harder to Lose the Pieces

Another factor that makes wooden puzzles one of the best ones out there, and a much more favorable choice as compared to cardboard puzzles, is that it is much less likely to lose the pieces of a wooden puzzle.

Cardboard puzzles are made to keep profits in mind, due to which a lot of them are low quality and rather fragile.

Because of their tendency to be so fragile, their build quality is rather flimsy, making them very much susceptible to being misplaced, and a misplaced puzzle piece would result in an incomplete puzzle.

However, wooden puzzle pieces are less delicate than their cardboard counterparts and have some weight to them.

These qualities of wooden puzzle pieces make them much more visible to the naked eye, so they’re difficult to lose. Hence, they’re the perfect sort of puzzle if you are tired of losing all your puzzle pieces.

Cut by Lasers

When the concept of the wooden puzzle was first introduced to the public, the way the pieces of the wooden puzzle were cut was through a special type of saw known as the jig saw, which consisted of special edges which were capable of carving the material into irregular puzzle pieces.

However, as time went by and technology started to progress, the equipment used to make wooden puzzles also went through advancement.

Nowadays, the puzzle pieces contained in one of the best wooden puzzles out there are cut through cutting-edge laser technology.

Although handcrafted wood puzzles are considered to be very valuable in the jigsaw community, wood puzzles that are cut through laser technology have their own benefits as well.

Puzzle pieces that are cut by laser ensure the utmost accuracy, resulting in puzzle pieces that will fit perfectly, no matter how intricate the design of the puzzle is.

Laser technology and the cutting techniques incorporated by lasers are considered to be one of the best craftsmanship techniques, appreciated by many puzzle enthusiasts in the community.

Additionally, wood is the best material for lasers to work with. Due to this, lasers, resulting in whimsical patterns which are very vivid and successfully display the artistic ability of the puzzle, can easily achieve many levels of intricacy and complexity.

Wood Puzzles Have a Calming Effect

In addition to the quality of life changes and benefits, wooden puzzles have proven to have many health-related benefits as well.

After medical trial and testing, it has been scientifically proven that the scent of wood tends to have a calming effect on a human’s psyche.

There have been studies and research conducted on accomplished woodcarvers and modelers, and the results have shown that they tend to feel much calmer when working with wood. This is largely due to the meditative effect the overall feel and scent of the material has on their minds.

 In addition to that, it has also been medically proven that wood also has an effect on the person’s mood as well, increasing their mood and overall motivation as well.

Due to these reasons, wooden puzzles are considered to be very therapeutic and can be a great activity to perform when feeling nervous about any particular event or gathering you have to attend.

It helps With Focus and Concentration.

In addition to having a calming effect on people, it has also been medically proven after trials and research that wood tends to help people focus and concentrate as well.

Due to the fact that wooden puzzles consist of fewer pieces as compared to the average cardboard puzzle, every piece counts.

This knack of making every piece useful in order to complete the puzzle can be carried over to real life as well due to the increased precision, skill, and attention to detail that may develop within you when completing wood puzzles.

Things to Note

Taking these benefits and the overall build and craftsmanship into account, it is safe to assume that there are many reasons why wooden puzzles are considered to be the best.

There are many puzzles that exist around the globe that may be much more intricately designed than your average wooden puzzle, but when it comes to the overall decision, many enthusiasts and accomplished puzzle assemblers in the world prefer wooden puzzles rather than cardboard ones.

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