hey kids, i know this discusion group is more for the rubik's cube type puzzles, but I was wondering if anyone knew of an active discussion group that dealt with the metal/wire/string/rope type puzzles where you typically try to remove a ring, or something along those lines. The John Rausch website has plenty of info on them, but not much in terms of discussions.
thanks

-d

But I don't expect to find a discussion on wire puzzles. There are many obstacles to discus such puzzles.
Have you tried to make a list of your puzzle collection? I had. It was pretty easy while dealing with twisty puzzles. They have (most of them) official names, o can be described like "2x2x3 cuboid". When I dug into wire puzzles box, I was frustrated. No common names, a lot of variations of the same idea (sometimes very well hidden, which could be considered as a new idea), size of elements extremely relevant. I have commercial versions of puzzles, which have second solution, not intended by author. Sometimes even picture don't give enough information about the puzzle. How to discuss them? I don't know.
But we can make an attempt.

Now that you mention it, it does seem extremely difficult to discus metal puzzles. Someone recently asked me (in an email) how to solve the pentangle puzzle (see http://www.puzzles.ca) and I had a very tough time describing the solution without diagrams or anything like that.

-d