# jigsaw! **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [December 27, 2003, 12:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jigsaw/221184 "2003-12-27T00:12:13Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 11\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![vanilla](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/f19dbf/32.png) [@vanilla](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/vanilla)\ **Post date:** [December 27, 2003, 12:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jigsaw/221184/1 "2003-12-27T00:12:13Z")
I received (from a very nice person) a jigsaw puzzle for Xmas. Fortunately, it was only 100 pieces. It was fun! Who here has done a really big one,say 5,000 pieces? And how long did it take? It took me about a half hour to dothis one (Scooby Doo!) ---
**Author:** ![vanilla](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/f19dbf/32.png) [@vanilla](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/vanilla)\ **Post date:** [December 27, 2003, 12:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jigsaw/221184/2 "2003-12-27T00:28:46Z")
and why do they call it jigsaw? ---
**Author:** ![gotpasswords](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/c57346/32.png) [@gotpasswords](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gotpasswords)\ **Post date:** [December 27, 2003, 12:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jigsaw/221184/3 "2003-12-27T00:51:41Z")
Because they used to use a jigsaw to cut out the pieces back when puzzles were made of wood. ---
**Author:** ![gotpasswords](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/c57346/32.png) [@gotpasswords](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gotpasswords)\ **Post date:** [December 27, 2003, 12:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jigsaw/221184/4 "2003-12-27T00:56:51Z")
Oh, and before anyone asks - here’s what a [hand-powered jigsaw](http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/B0000BYE5K) (aka coping saw) looks like. ---
**Author:** ![Robot\_Arm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/robot_arm/32/18280_2.png) [@Robot\_Arm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Robot_Arm)\ **Post date:** [December 27, 2003, 1:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jigsaw/221184/5 "2003-12-27T01:49:15Z")
The biggest I’ve done is 3,000. I noticed when I was doing it that the cutter must have been on a roller (like a cylindrical printing plate rolling ink onto a page). That’s fine, but the circumference of the roller was only one-third the length of the puzzle, so the shapes of the pieces repeated like the pattern in a tile floor. The top part of the picture was sky and clouds, so even if a piece fit I had to match the shading to the pieces around it. (But then I knew where the same-shaped pieces went, too). I don’t remember how long it took. ---
**Author:** ![Voyager](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/voyager/32/133_2.png) [@Voyager](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Voyager)\ **Post date:** [December 27, 2003, 4:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jigsaw/221184/6 "2003-12-27T04:31:34Z")
I did a 6,000 piece one - an old map of the world. Took over a year, set up in a table in our sun room. My wife was about to kill me by the time I was done with it. There are some reall attractive 8K ones out there - but I’m saving that for when we retire. Till then, I have to be satisfied with 3,00 piece ones at most, and with my 3D puzzles. I’ve got a garage full of completed ones. Anyone else to the Puzz-3D ones? ---
**Author:** ![bare](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bare/32/471_2.png) [@bare](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bare)\ **Post date:** [December 27, 2003, 6:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jigsaw/221184/7 "2003-12-27T06:48:27Z")
Here’s another way to waste your time. Damned addicting things. [http://www.jigzone.com/](http://www.jigzone.com/) ---
**Author:** ![Cazzle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cazzle/32/75_2.png) [@Cazzle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cazzle)\ **Post date:** [December 27, 2003, 7:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jigsaw/221184/8 "2003-12-27T07:08:23Z")
Have you seen the [Impossipuzzles](http://www.toysbymailorder.co.uk/acatalog/Impossipuzzles.html)? They’re a repeditive pattern (I’ve seen m&m’s, beans, etc), they don’t have a straight edge and they come with a couple of extra pieces that aren’t supposed to fit. Sounds like a nice present with which to torture that Jigsaw fanatic in your life. ---
**Author:** ![Doomtrain](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/0ea827/32.png) [@Doomtrain](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Doomtrain)\ **Post date:** [December 27, 2003, 7:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jigsaw/221184/9 "2003-12-27T07:49:09Z")
I remember getting a 3D one when I was a kid. A Tyrannosaurus Rex or something, I think. Total nightmare. I don’t remember if I ever got it together or not. ---
**Author:** ![Podkayne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/edb3f5/32.png) [@Podkayne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Podkayne)\ **Post date:** [December 27, 2003, 3:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jigsaw/221184/10 "2003-12-27T15:23:42Z")
Sigh! Nostalgia! My family always had a big jigsaw puzzle going on the table in the living room over winter break. I have a very pretty 1000-piecer up in the closet, still sealed in the box. I need to get snowed in for a week, with no internet, having accidentally left all my work at the office, so that I enjoy doing it without feeling guilty. ---
**Author:** ![liirogue](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/dbc845/32.png) [@liirogue](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/liirogue)\ **Post date:** [December 27, 2003, 8:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jigsaw/221184/11 "2003-12-27T20:22:49Z")
Hubby and I once started a 2,000 piece (I think that’s what it was). We started out all gung-ho, but we gave up right after we got the border finished. In our defense, one of the dogs or cats chewed at least one piece while we were working, and we used that as an excuse.