Incredibly beautiful and intricate Chinese Puzzle Ball. It has 16 separate and freely moving layers, each within the other. A fascinating and incredible piece of artistry and workmanship. A lot of work goes into these detailed designs. It comes on its own teak display stand.

This 18 layer puzzle balls has 4 Dragons & 3 Phoenix and is approximately 11 cm or 4.25 inches.

HOW ARE THEY MADE?
The sphere is turned on a lathe then conical holes are drilled towards the center. The maker has a set of "L" shaped tools, the one with the longest upright has the shortest cutter and the one with the shortest upright has the longest cutter. Starting with the longest tool, he lowers it to the narrow bottom of each hole in turn and rotates it to cut the innermost ball free. Then he gets the second tool which does not reach so far down the hole but can cut a wider arc and separates the second ball. He continues working from the innermost to outermost shell. For obvious reasons, usually only the outermost balls are elaborately carved.

The outer layer is twice as thick as the inner layers. This is because the two outer layers are fused together. The reason for this is that the outer layer with the dueling dragons is carved so deeply that if it were free moving it would be too fragile and shatter. So it has to be fused to the 2nd layer to make it strong enough to avoid breaking. The very inner ball at the center is also counted as a layer making up the total number of layers. On the larger balls the center ball can have a ball within a ball (called the "marble") thus counting as two layers. Therefore counting the center ball and the other movable layers will make up the total layers of the ball minus two layers. Those remaining two layers are the ones fused together making up the outer shell.

For example - an 18 layer ball will have 16 movable layers (including the center ball and its inside "marble") plus the 2 fused outer layers.

Code: Ball18
Shipping Weight: 3.00 Lbs.