Another Way Out in petrified wood

The same puzzle as our classic piece of the same name, with every part cut from petrified wood instead. Each part is shaped from one piece of stone and polished, and every edge and corner is rounded so the stone does not chip where the cord pulls across it.

Petrified wood is a fossil: over millions of years quartz took the place of the tree, leaving a deep walnut brown with its grain still showing. At about 7 on the hardness scale it is harder than a steel knife.

We only use fine-grained or fibrous stones. Their tiny grains lock together and stop a crack from running, so a diamond tool follows our CAD file cleanly and the finished piece resists chipping, where a single crystal such as clear quartz would flake.

The cord and the steel ring are the same as on the classic piece, so the solution is the same. We can cut it in pink chalcedony, sugilite, nephrite jade, dumortierite, black onyx, red jasper, tiger’s eye or petrified wood.