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Handcrafting the World’s Finest Wooden Jigsaw Puzzles Since 1974
If you’re looking for the most ingenious, elegantly tricky, and beautifully handmade custom wooden jigsaw puzzles in the world… you have found them. Each wooden jigsaw puzzle is meticulously hand-cut, one piece at a time, by a skilled crafter. No computers, no high-tech (or lasers). One saw, one cutter — that's it. Using lots of imagination and a little bit of magic, we handcraft each wooden puzzle - piece by piece - so unique that each puzzle is an original work of art. There's no other puzzle in the world quite like a Stave and there's no other experience like solving one. The fun isn't just what's inside the box — it's everything about Stave.
In the News
Business management guru Tom Peters named Stave Puzzles "Product of the Year" in 1991, saying, "The folks at Stave Puzzles represent a class of unsung companies that do things right—deliver superior service, on time, in a way that satisfies and even delights customers." Here what some other notables have said about us:
Stave Puzzles Drives Customers to Distraction
| Pittsburgh Post Gazette | May 10, 2020
"The designers and woodcrafters at Stave Puzzles Inc. can be devious, often taking behind-the-scenes pleasure in driving their customers to distraction. Surprisingly, the customers would have it no other way."
Stave Puzzles Will Drive You Wild
Bloomberg Magazine | Feb 17, 2020
"How a tiny manufacturer of wooden jigsaw puzzles created an addiction that high achievers just can’t kick"
The 'Rolls-Royce of Puzzles' Drives its Fans Round the Bend | Smithsonian Magazine | May 1990
"Expensive, beautiful and maddeningly difficult, Stave puzzles explore baffiing new jigsaw frontiers. A re you set for a Double Whammy."
CBS Sunday Morning | 2007
"It takes a certain type of person to put a maddeningly difficult puzzle together, and it takes a particulary diabolical type of person to create one."
WCAX | May 23, 2022
"Inside the confines of one White River Junction building, sits a world of puzzling possibilities."
8 People, Places & Things We Love About America
| Reader's Digest | Feb 13, 2017
“I have a unique relationship with my customers,” says Steve Richardson, president of Stave Puzzles in Norwich, Vermont. “They pay me to torture them.”
In Vermont, Stave Puzzles Created to Confound
| Boston Globe | Sept 14, 2013
"Steve Richardson wants to drive you crazy."
Made in the Upper Valley: Stave Puzzles
| Enterprise | Jan 22, 2019
Snapping into place: Jigsaw puzzles have an ardent following | Concord Monitor | Feb 18, 2020
"There are jigsaw puzzle nights at coffee shops and libraries. Puzzle groups and puzzle games online. Hand-cut wooden puzzles that cost thousands of dollars."
How an Entrepreneur's Beguiling Jigsaw
Creations Won a Cult Following
| Departure's Magazine | Mar/Apr 2008
Bits and Pieces
| USAir Magazine | May 1992
"Once You Open This Box, There's No Turning Back ... "
Review: Stave Puzzles Champ the Sea Monster
| Wired Magazine | Apr 20, 2009
"Steve Richardson calls himself the Chief Tormentor of Stave Puzzles. He is, in fact, the president — and the designer of the company's fiercely difficult jigsaw puzzles."
10 High-End Jigsaw Puzzles to Give You
a Much-Needed Break From Your Screens
| Robb Report | Mar 23, 2020
"There are puzzles and then there are Stave puzzles."
The World's Best Jigsaw Puzzles
| Forbes | May 10, 2011
"Stave puzzles has garnered a lofty reputation and loyal following for its intricate, beautiful, and sometimes maddening hand-cut wooden puzzles."
Putting It Together
| Inc. | June 1, 2002
"Meet the puzzle company that conjures 'sadomasochistic' thrills for Bill and Melinda Gates."
A.J. Jacobs - How to be Less Furious and More Curious | The Tim Ferriss Show | Apr 22, 2022
"There’s one of the chapters I go to, this crazy company in Vermont that makes hand-carved wooden puzzles..." – A.J. Jacobs
$40,000 For Solving a Wooden Jigsaw Puzzle? | Vermont Public Radio | Aug 20, 2015
"There are jigsaw puzzle nights at coffee shops and libraries. Puzzle groups and puzzle games online. Hand-cut wooden puzzles that cost thousands of dollars."
Going to Pieces | Attaché | Feb 1998
"Does your life lack frustration? Join the likes of Bill Gates and Tom Peters and buy one of the toughest jigsaw puzzles ever made."
Eccentrics Corner QA: The Jigsaw Provocateur
| Psychology Today | Nov 2013
"Puzzle maker Steve Richardson is that rare inventor who succeeds by intentionally frustrating his best customers."
The Good Life: Stave Jigsaw Puzzles
| Cigar Aficionado | Jul 2010
"The scene: a swanky London mansion. A gala party in full swing suddenly becomes a multiple crime scene, and the authorities swoop in. It’s up to you to help them crack each case and nab the perps."
Piece by Piece, This Vermont Company Built a Pandemic-Proof Business in $1,000 Jigsaw Puzzles
| Boston Globe | Sept 22, 2020
"They’re billed as “the Rolls-Royce of Puzzles.” No flimsy cardboard. No inkjet-printed images. Stave Puzzles are crafted works of art — with the price tag to match."
Why Some People Pay $8,000 for This Guy's Puzzles
| The Fader | Jun 9, 2016
"Vermont's Stave Puzzles makes the world's best, and most maddeningly difficult, jigsaws."
The One Item Bill Gates Almost Always Brings Along When Going On Vacation
| Inc. | Feb 22, 2018
"As part of a testimonial for the company, Stave Puzzles, Bill wrote, "We usually have one or two Stave puzzles along on vacations and during the holidays. We often have a Stave puzzle out on a table at the house. They're entertaining and stimulating."
Collectibles: Piece Maker
| The Robb Report | Nov 11, 2016
"Steve Richardson, a designer of wooden jigsaw puzzles, says he has a sadomasochistic relationship with his customers, who pay hundreds, sometimes thousands of dollars to indulge in the tortures that he devises."
Has This Five-Star Hotel Created the Most Lavish Murder Mystery Weekend Ever | Forbes | Feb 27, 2018
"Not only are there costumes and clues involved, but guests will also have to solve Stave Puzzles (knowing for making some of the world’s most expensive puzzles) to figure out who committed the crime."
Pieces of Tradition
| HILuxury | Nov 2022
"There’s no depiction of the final Christmas image in front of the box of a Stave puzzle. Just the jigsawed silhouette of a clown provoking a challenge."
Bill Gates, Jeff Bezos:
Why Rich Americans Love Stave Puzzles
| Les Echos | Oct 1, 2020
"The puzzle maker from Vermont, not far from the border with Canada, boasts of making the most difficult models in the world… but also the most expensive. The small company of 25 employees counts among its loyal fans Bill Gates, Jeff Bezos… and the Queen of England."
Pleasantly Tormented by a Puzzle with Steve Richardson
| The Accutron Show | Nov 3, 2020
"The scene: a swanky London mansion. A gala party in full swing suddenly becomes a multiple crime scene, and the authorities swoop in. It’s up to you to help them crack each case and nab the perps."
It's Time To Break Out The Toys
| Vermont Public Radio | Dec 17, 2018
1991 Product of the Year | Tom Peters
"The high-end, mind-warping jigsaw puzzles from Norwich, Vermont's Stave Puzzles."
Chronicle | Jul 10, 2017
"At Stave Puzzles, they take great pride in their perplexing puzzles."
Press Releases
Awards
2000 Guinness World Records names Stave Puzzles "Most Valuable Jigsaw Puzzle"
2003 Steve Richardson receives the first Spilsbury Award, at Association of Game and Puzzle Collector's 17th annual convention.
Stave Puzzles Fast Facts
Steve Richardson invented Trick™, Teaser™, Troublemaker™ and Treat™ puzzle types, and is known as the Chief Tormentor.
Due to the highly custom nature of Stave's jigsaw puzzles, they are not found in any store. Customers purchase directly from Stave.
Request fun shaped pieces, called silhouettes, in Stave Traditionals. Names, Dates, shapes of animals, objects, or people in action.
Founded by Steve Richardson and Dave Tibbetts in 1974, they combined their names to create an iconic brand (Steve + Dave = Stave).
Over 45 years of
puzzling torment!
After one year, Dave sold his portion of the business to Steve for $1 and a saw. They remain good friends to this day.
No lasers, no templates, or fancy gadgets are used to create Stave's wooden puzzles – just an artisan and a saw.
Champ, Stave's infamous Trick™ puzzle, has 32 possible solutions but only one is correct.
A Stave puzzle will never come with a photo of the puzzle image, that would make your job too easy!
The signature logo piece is included in every Stave puzzle crafted.
Stave is currently using fourteen saws to craft its puzzles.
Jennifer Lennox and Paula Tardie purchased Stave Puzzles in 2016 and continue Steve’s legacy of family fun with a little bit of torment.
Stave Puzzles
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The Blue Box Experience