Interlocking - Scrambled Scorpius

Scrambled Scorpius (Stewart Coffin)
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Scrambled Scorpius (Mark McCallum)
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Scrambled Scorpius - Pieces (Mark McCallum)
 
Scrambled Scorpius (Stewart Coffin)
 
Scrambled Scorpius (Stewart Coffin)
 
Scrambled Scorpius (Bart Buie)
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Scrambled Scorpius (Bart Buie)
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Scrambled Scorpius - Pieces (Bart Buie)
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Designer:Stewart Coffin
Craftsman:Stewart Coffin (1st, 4th & 5th)
Mark McCallum (2nd & 3rd)
Bart Buie (6th, 7th & 8th)
Category:Interlocking
Material:Honduran Rosewood (2nd & 3rd)
Bloodwood, Rosewood, Holly, Satinwood (6th)
Tulipwood (7th & 8th)
Pieces:6

Imagine taking a nest of twelve triangular sticks (See the Broken Sticks puzzle for an example of what the nest looks like) and splitting each stick longitudinally. This produces a symmetrical arrangement of twenty-four sticks with 30-60-90° cross-section.
 
These resulting sticks can then be assembled in fours (with four sticks radiating out from each of the six square dimples) to make the basic Scorpius puzzle. Its external appearance is identical to the Scrambled Scorpius. The Scrambled Scorpius is a variation where the four sticks are joined in different ways. Not counting side-by-side pairs, there are ten such ways of joining four sticks. Of these, one is symmetrical, two are impossible to assemble and one does not permit any solutions. The remaining six pieces assemble only one way with a single sliding axis making a very difficult and interesting puzzle.
 
Stewart made 200 from 1978 to 1987. Number 23 in his numbering system. U.S. Design Patent 230288, 1974.
 
The four-woods version (4th & 5th photographs) is number 164 in his numbering system. His also made six-wood versions numbered 164A (one wood for each piece) and 164B (woods symmetrically arranged).
 
More information in The Puzzling World of Polyhedral Dissections