Best Wooden Puzzles for Adults

My Best Wooden Puzzle Recommendations

I hope you enjoy this journey into wooden puzzles.
Sometimes time is short (even for jigsaw puzzlers!) so below are some of my quick recommendations.
If you have a few minutes, see below for my favourite wooden puzzles and a deep dive into the best wooden puzzle companies and find out why they are the best.

Click here to see more Geoff’s Top Picks!

What are Wooden Jigsaw Puzzles?

Wooden jigsaw puzzles have intricate pieces crafted from wood instead of the more common cardboard. Each puzzle is cut by hand or laser, and as each piece can vary significantly in shape and have much greater stiffness, they feel very luxurious! (Wentworth puzzle shape below)

History of the Wooden Jigsaw Puzzle
(in five sentences!)

In the 1760s, John Spilsbury created the first-ever jigsaw puzzle by gluing one of his maps to a flat piece of mahogany or cedar wood and cutting out the outlines of countries.
These early jigsaws were called ‘dissections’, meaning ‘cut into pieces’.
They weren’t called jigsaws as he cut them using a marquetry ‘hand’ saw.

In 1855, the Jigsaw tool was invented – named as the vertical saw looked like it was dancing or performing a ‘jig’!
The word ‘Jigsaw Puzzle‘ was first used in 1906.

How are Wooden Puzzles made?

Once the painting has been designed (hopefully with lots of interesting colours and not full of just blue sky!), it is then printed directly onto wood or paper. The printed paper is usually coated on one side to allow the ink to be absorbed in just the right amount and produce vibrant colour and sharp detail.

The paper is then glued to the wood using a strong adhesive and smoothed to ensure there are no bubbles or wrinkles. Once the adhesive has dried, the wood is ready to be cut into puzzle pieces.

There are three main methods: Traditional hand cutting, Die cutting and Modern laser cutting.

Traditional Hand Cutting: A craftsman uses a jigsaw or scroll saw to cut the puzzle pieces. The process begins by creating a pattern for the puzzle. This could be a standard grid or a unique, irregular pattern. The craftsman then uses the saw to carefully cut along the lines of the pattern. This process requires a very steady hand and a keen eye for detail. It’s time-consuming, but it allows for high customization and those essential ‘whimsy’ pieces.

Die Cutting:  Stamped out by something that looks like a highly complex cookie cutter using vast amounts of pressure. Used mainly by cheaper brands as this cutting can create splinters – be careful out there!

Laser Cutting: The modern method uses a laser cutter to cut the puzzle pieces. A pattern is specially created, which uses the puzzle image for inspiration and the designer’s imagination! The laser cutter follows this pattern to cut the pieces, which is much faster than hand cutting and allows for precise, consistent pieces. Does it burn the wood? Yes!

(Disclaimer – the image below is not factully correct, just my imagination!)

What type of wood is used for a Wooden Puzzle? How thick is the wood?

The wood is generally 1/4 inch plywood and can vary from Maple veneer (Liberty) to 4mm Birch/Basswood plywood (Nautilus) & Mahogany veneer (Bogarts). In 2022, Wentworth changed from 3mm plywood to 4mm plywood. See the table below.

Benefits of Wooden Jigsaw Puzzles

1. Shapes of the Puzzle Pieces – wooden puzzles can have an incredible variety of shapes or ‘whimsies’.
2. Durability: Wooden puzzles are generally much stronger and more durable than cardboard puzzles. Made with recycled puzzle board, cardboard pieces have laminated layers that can split apart – especially if trying to fit the piece in the wrong place! This is the most common area of faults with cardboard puzzles and doesn’t happen with plywood.
3. Tactile Experience: The feel of wooden pieces can be more satisfying to handle with their weight, and they don’t bend!
4. Puzzle piece fit: Wooden pieces often fit together more securely, reducing the frustration that can come from cardboard pieces that split, bend or don’t snap into place properly.
5. Shaped puzzles – laser cutting allows a greater variety of more intricate puzzle shapes.
6. Dust – laser cut wooden puzzles are relatively free from dust compared to the dust found in the corner of every bag of a cardboard puzzle.
7. You could appear on an Antique show in the future! – as the puzzles are passed down through generations as heirlooms!

Some Wooden Puzzles for the Kids too!