The Shinola + Craighill stainless steel jack puzzle is not just a beautiful object, it’s a brain puzzle for all ages. Comprised of six notched stainless steel bars which interlock, this paperweight takes on a classic “jack” shape that inspires childlike creativity, just as the designers intended.
Craighill also makes this puzzle in brass, but made an electropolished stainless steel version exclusively for Shinola. We sat down with Hunter Craighill, founder of Craighill and one of the masterminds behind this puzzle, to hear how the puzzle is manufactured and what the company’s main creative drivers are.
Can you explain your team’s design philosophy?
We have an exploratory design philosophy and approach. It’s not limited to any one material, medium or process. It’s more concept and idea driven. It’s also driven by our personal kinda curiosities and interests. We have definite focus on utility and functionality in terms of finding little ways to make the day better. Little tools that can bring a daily, tiny joy. We love transforming existing materials and elevating them — in truth, the components of this puzzle are found easily, but we transformed the material into something new.
We’re also pretty manufacturing obsessed — I have a great love for visiting factories and we do all of our sourcing in the U.S. A lot of the inspiration often comes from starting these conversations and visiting factories, understanding their processes and their efficiencies. We almost design backwards utilizing their expertise and what we can learn from them.
How did you come up with the design for this steel jack puzzle?
The puzzle was a project that Nate McCracken [the main designer], and I had been batting around for a very long time, even before Craighill came into existence. There were dozens of iterations of it and explorations, and a lot of trial and error. We did a lot of research on dorky brain puzzles and searched places like online forum boards to come up with the final design. Once we finalized the design, the next challenge was the manufacturing, which in this case requires a surprising level of accuracy and precision.
[[{“type”:”media”,”view_mode”:”media_original”,”fid”:”2046″,”attributes”:{“alt”:””,”class”:”media-image”,”height”:”540″,”typeof”:”foaf:Image”,”width”:”960″}}]]
Nate McCracken (lead designer), Zach Fried (Director of Sales & Marketing), and Hunter Craighill (founder).
What is special about this product?
We make a brass version too, and doing the stainless steel version for Shinola was an interesting leap because it’s significantly more difficult to cut steel compared to brass. It was fun adapting our manufacturing process for stainless steel. We also did the electropolishing to brighten up the finish of the surface.
This product had both design and manufacturing challenges that we were able to find and overcome, but it’s also just a playful, fun and beautiful piece. It does have utility in mind, even though it is a decorative object. It doesn’t solve an explicit problem in people’s lives, but it does occupy your mind and challenge you. If nothing else, it helps pass the time.
[[{“type”:”media”,”view_mode”:”media_original”,”fid”:”2047″,”attributes”:{“alt”:””,”class”:”media-image”,”height”:”540″,”typeof”:”foaf:Image”,”width”:”960″}}]]
Stainless steel pieces before being polished.
Where do you manufacture this puzzle?
We worked with a friend of mine who’s a machinist in Rhode Island to develop the process and spent a very long weekend in January during the big blizzard that happened. We camped out at his machine shop together and ran through a lot of brass bar stock trying to get the tolerances right on this puzzle to get it to fit together just right and slide in with just enough friction where it’ll stay together, but not fall apart.
We discovered it required an accuracy of nearly down to a thousandth of an inch, which is more precise than most typical consumer goods would require. Since then, we’ve actually figured out how to scale up the production by working with some CAD, CNC-operated lathe machines that can do automated cutting with extreme precision.
The manufacturers we’re working with now do a lot of aerospace parts and we brought them a new job opportunity by utilizing their skillset, but creating a new type of product. It’s an interesting way of keeping people working who have a lot of skills and a lot of equipment, and we get to employ people to do what they do best.
Discover the Shinola + Craighill stainless steel jack here.