Machining

Every Kewb begins with the material. We source the best materials we can find, as close to home as practical, and choose them for how they perform, how they feel, and how they will age. A Kewb begins as brass bar stock before moving to our CNC mill, where a fourth axis allows us to machine the corners, edges, and centers through a series of carefully planned operations. Many pieces require multiple setups; centers are machined, repositioned, and thread milled, while the core — the most complex component in a Kewb — requires several separate operations before a base Kewb is created.

At this stage, every face of a Kewb is slightly oversized and ready for engraving. The first step is to machine an entire face down to final height. Any surface height difference will show up in engraved lines as width or "weight" differences. Each face, of every Kewb is engraved individually, perfection can not be rushed.

Even the brass cord lock begins as bar stock and is machined here. Our walnut display stands are milled in-house and hand finished with an engraved brass plaque recording the puzzle name, variant, individual serial number, and forge date.

Our studio combines precision CNC machining with traditional hand tools and finishing techniques because we believe having the right tool for each job matters.

Timeless Materials

The Kewb needed the right balance of beauty, gravitas, elegance and a splash of ambiguity to its exact vintage. The list of ingredients was kept short, selecting them, as our ancestors did, for their durability and performance.

  • Brass - 2500 BCE
  • Steel - 1800 BCE
  • Leather - 120000 BCE
  • Black Walnut - 7000 BCE

The Sewing Studio

The process continues in our adjacent sewing studio, where full-grain leather becomes the carrying bag included with every Kewb. Each piece is traced and cut by hand before the hardware is set, seams are skived and sewn, and the leather is hammered and edge-finished. We use industrial walking-foot machines — including flatbed and cylinder-arm machines — alongside dedicated leather-working equipment, presses, and specialized hand tools. The cord and our machined brass cord lock are the final pieces added.

  • No Detail Too Small

    Countless iterations lead to one simple conclusion; precision and surface finish were paramount. Every dimension or tolerance change, chamfer modification, spring tension adjustment had an immediate effect on the feel of the puzzle. Eventually all prefabricated components and fasteners were eliminated, one by one and replaced with custom machined, in-house parts. This journey would not end until it moved as good as it looked.

  • Assembly

    Assembly brings those two sides of our studio together. Components are cleaned, finished, inspected, and assembled into the completed puzzle, with quality checks throughout rather than simply at the end. The finished Kewb is wrapped in corrosion-resistant paper, vacuum sealed, and placed in its presentation box with its bag and stand. We don't outsource the parts that are difficult, tedious, or unusually specialized — those are often the parts we care about most.