Hardwood Games, Puzzles and Toys Make Great Gifts for Adults
Classic train sets. Fire trucks. Helicopters and planes. The hardwood toys Tom Merrin makes are enough to enthrall any child. And, it turns out, adults like them too.
"People get excited when they see a product crafted of wood, especially when they realize it's hardwood with natural finishing," Merrin says. "They want something nostalgic."
Beautiful, lasting hardwood toys like those Merrin makes are popular gifts for grown-ups. So are classic wood puzzles and board games, many of which were popular when Baby Boomers were kids.
'Shoot the Moon'
One old favorite made by the Drueke Co. is "Shoot-the-Moon." The object of the game is to maneuver two steel rods so that a steel ball rolls along and drops into a high-scoring hole in a narrow maple board.
"You walk into an office. Someone has one of these games on the desk, and you can't help but play with it," says Martin Bohn, Drueke vice president of operations.
Chess games, which Drueke has been making since 1914, remain a solid seller at specialty stores across the nation, Bohn says. The company sells a tournament chess box made of solid walnut and aspen and a game room table made of walnut. Restoration Hardware sells an "ultimate game box" made by Drueke. It features a walnut box with a storage tray, game board, checkers, chess pieces, cards and dominoes.
"Video games are becoming less and less popular," Bohn says. "Family games are coming back because it brings people back together."
Puzzle Designer Fashions Brain Teasers From Hardwood
Kathleen Malcolmson started working with wood in a junior high shop class. She never forgot what she learned, and today she is an expert woodworker who designs puzzles.
"I love the challenge of coming up with new ideas," Malcolmson says. "I like the thought that my puzzles make people think."
In her workshop in the Sangre de Cristo Mountains outside Cotopaxi, Colo., Malcolmson fashions puzzles from solid hardwoods like cherry, maple and walnut. Some of the puzzles are mechanical, the kind you take apart and then try to put back together. Others are artful puzzle boxes, which can only be opened by solving a trick.
It's no accident Malcolmson works with wood.
"It's satisfying to hold and manipulate wood in your hands," she says. "It's warm, and it's soft. There are no hard edges or coolness to it. Wood has a quality that draws you in to look at it and to touch it."
Malcolmson and her husband, Charlie, sell puzzles worldwide through their company, Cleverwood Fine Woodworking, via the Internet.
Prices for Malcolmson's puzzles range from $2.50 to $550. The popular magnetic rhombus puzzle, made of eight solid maple pieces with small round magnets in them.
"The rhombus comes apart very easily, but it does not go back very easily," Charlie says. "There are 40,320 possible combinations. Only one of them works."
Malcolmson typically uses a table saw to cut puzzle pieces from raw wood. A stationary belt sander smoothes out the surfaces. The magnetic rhombus has a clear finish, and some of the pieces are dipped in die. The magnets are glued into drilled holes. For puzzle boxes, she uses a router table to mill the joinery and mechanisms.
"It's very relaxing to work with wood," Malcolmson says. "You're shaping and forming each piece according to its unique character."
Consider how challenging a particular puzzle might be before you buy it for a friend or yourself. "Everyone's frustration level differs," Malcolmson says. "You want enough frustration to challenge you but not so much that you are discouraged. Most people can do more than they think. A great puzzle will stretch what you think your limits are."
Gift Ideas
Here are some ideas for hardwood games, toys and puzzles that appeal to adults:
- Architectural building blocks
- Checkers
- Chess
- Chinese Checkers
- Cribbage
- Croquet
- Dollhouse and furniture
- Dominoes
- Game box that contains a variety of games
- Kaleidoscope
- Mechanical puzzle
- Miniature car, tractor, truck or airplane
- Model plane, boat or car kit
- Rocking horse
- Train set
- Yo-yo
