Ho hum, the box and cards are put in the bottle one at a time just like I thought.
Wait, there’s NO SANTA???!
LOL! I just realized something after rewatching the making video. Putting the cards back is necessary because it forces and keeps the box in its original shape! Being able to honestly say all the cards are in the box is just a plus!
Awww…should have spoilered both comments! :eek:
Pat Pat …Santa’s real. Just have to figure how to get him out of the bottle!
This is old, but somehow seems appropriate: https://ding.net/bonsaikitten/gray.html
Ah, thanks! 
It’s so simple, just like with Poire William pear brandy. They just put one card inside and wait for it to grow into a full deck.
To keep the fun going for me, here’s a page that describes Henry Eng’s Impossible Bottles. Everything but the wooden block can be explained by disassembly and reassembly inside the bottle and searching around, I’ve seen variations on the theme, but not the wooden block…
"Our venerable curator has gone nearly blind with a magnifying glass but has failed to find any sign of breaks or glue in this plank. It is a One Gallon Bottle and the plank measures about 14 cm x 12.5 cm x 1.8 cm thick.
Even if one could use the key that is loose in the bottom of the bottle, the padlock on the bottom of the plank is too large to fit through the neck of the bottle.
The plank is engraved with Harry’s “Think” Logo."
Source: https://www.puzzlemuseum.com/puzzles/amb/eng_botts/harry-eng.htm
I’m searching for some kind of highly porous wood that highly compressible or settling on he grew a branch in there ala the pear and carved the darn thing inside the bottle!
BTW, Eng passed away in 1996 and it seems since no one has been able to duplicate the wooden block, the secret went with him. RIP and Thank You Harry!
Nice find!
Here’s how the bolt is installed through a dowling, deck of cards, etc…
It’s hard to see from the link, but could the plank have been split into strips that were then glued together inside the bottle?
The picture doesn’t show that much detail but you can see the image routed into the block, a stylized version of the word ‘Think’ is ideally designed to allow the block to be built up out of thinner pieces. Buried inside the assembled block would be some alignment pins, or perhaps the wood piece are cut into some kind of nesting shape.
I would think the seams would be obvious though.
Also, the lock appears to me like it would fit sideways through the mouth of the bottle.
It’s possible. Apparently, Eng was know to invent his own tools to complete his creations including a vice that would fit inside the bottle.
My thinking is that he just used very low density wood (such as Balsa), boiled it, put it in a vice to flatten down to the thickness/density of cardboard. Then he rolled it up and slid it in just like everything else. The wood would regain it’s original form as it dried out and there would be no indication of how it was done.
I have been wondering if balsa could do that. There are other woods of very low density that are so porous, you can blow air through them in line with the grain. Possibly that block of wood is not entirely solid either.
It could be a low density cedar.
I wish there was a better picture available.
It appears there may be horizontal grain lines that are more pronounced than others. Wood is very forgiving and as long as no fibres are damaged it can be glued and clamped back together with almost no visible signs of being broken.
I should have thought of cedar because my house is made out of it. The sapwood is very low density and the long fibers will help it return to form readily, but I think it there were seams on the broad face of that wood they would be noticeable no matter how carefully they were joined. We don’t know that they aren’t noticeable, only some hearsay about that and a picture of too low quality to detect anything like that.
However, you mentioned this guy could clamp things inside the bottle, perhaps it is made out of several thin sheets that could be easily rolled up and passed through the neck of the bottle, then clamped back together as a laminate. That would be easier to conceal on the end grain and side grain of that block. Combining compression and bending perhaps that is only a 2 or 3 ply lamination of wood.
In addition, however the wood was put in there, oil or propylene glycol can be used to make that wood swell up much larger than it’s dried state, and in small amounts may make the wood softer and more pliable to help get it in there. However, they might be a hindrance to any gluing necessary.
That is all speculation, looking at an enlarged image of the bottle, nothing is very clear, but there is a sort of regularity to the face grain which could be signs of it being a stack of small strips of wood, each of which could be passed through the neck of the bottle, aligned on some kind of pin, perhaps even a bolt used to clamp it all together before the top piece was placed on.
More fun!
Searching for more Harry Eng, I came across this: http://webapp1.dlib.indiana.edu/images/search.htm?max=15&scope=&start=0&c=dXE%3D%3AaGFycnkgZW5n
I have some ideas about the coins, and the nut & bolt. But the spoon has got me completely stumped!
My first thought was nitonol, but forgot it requires hit to return to it’s original shape. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8QEMKPBksYA
Regarding the wooden block. My first thought was balsa, but think the grain is too loose (if that’s the correct term), maybe open?. Cedar seems to the the opposite, too tight? But maybe that’s why it’s stained, to hide the grain pattern?
As for gluing, sanding and staining can help hide the joints.
Eng’s Impossible Fold demonstrated here.
CMC fnord!
One of the tools Eng was said to have used was a vice that could bend and straighten coins, metal, etc… I would assume this same device could curl a spoon enough to get it through the neck then open it up again afterwards.