The MPP Forced Me To Look For A Loophole

Loophole Lock from Boaz Feldman

Yet another success caused by the recent MPP - I am on a roll! I am absolutely terrible at lock puzzles but I am attracted to them like Icarus to the sun! I guess that I have not been killed by a lock like Icarus was but when Mrs S noticed that a new lock migrated into the house on my return from the MPP, she was distinctly unimpressed and that dangerous violent gleam could be seen in her eyes.

I bought the Loophole lock (currently sold out direct from Boaz but still available from PuzzleMaster) way back in December 2023 at the same time as the simply amazing PicoLock (available here from Boaz and also from PuzzleMaster). Having had such fun and great success with the PicoLock, I expected to have similar success with the Loophole which was supposed to be considerably simpler (indeed, it is rated only a 9 in PuzzleMaster's 5-10 scale). But here I am over a year later and only just managing to write about it. In retrospect, I have to admit that it's not because it is incredibly tough, it's because I am awful at locks! I should be ashamed of myself really.

The MPP stimulated me to try again because someone had brought in the Ant Hunt which had been released just a few months ago and I had had similar complete lack of progress. 

I asked a few people at the MPP about the Loophole and whether they had found it particularly difficult. Yes, they all agreed that it was a lovely but not too difficult puzzle. Damn! I really needed to go back to it and try again. Mrs S had made me rationalise my pile 'o puzzles to be solved because the weight was marking the carpet and I needed to hunt for it in a secondary storage area. It arrives in a nice bag with instructions to "open the lock" - well duh!

One thing I did manage to do correctly was the obvious removal of the key and ring from the shackle by unscrewing the ring. 

Yes, I know that it is a cliché but you simply have to insert the key and try to open the lock. I don't know why we always do it, we know it won't work and sometimes it gets us into trouble by locking the key in place. At least this time I inserted the key and tried the inevitable and it wouldn't even turn a little bit. At least the key was removable afterwards. After that, it's time to explore. The first thing to notice is that right in the middle of the 'O' of Loophole there is a hole. All the way through - you can create a loop by passing the key ring through it:

Now that looks nice but doesn't help you one little bit!

The other thing to be seen is that there is a fairly decent hole in the side of the lock which allows you to see inside and reveals...nothing! I could see into the depths of the lock and even poke about with the open end of the keyring. That does nothing either. Hmm! Turning the lock shackle downward reveals a bulky pin or something that shifts back and forth to cover the hole. It looks completely innocuous and doesn't have anything that could be engaged with the keyring. Looking through the hole in the front shows that the pin is so big that it impinges a little bit on that hole - enough to prevent me putting the keyring through the hole again. 

A pin visible in the side hole

This was the point that I had gotten stumped a year ago and on and off for months afterwards.

Having started again this time, I had a little think© and sort of wondered to myself: "self, why has Boaz knurled that pin?" Time to investigate the pin and suddenly I found a new detail that had evaded me completely for months. It didn't really help me initially but something new is always good. I moved the pin about up and down and tried to see more of the details of it. Suddenly I found a second something and this sent me up a new pathway that got me nowhere. I tried to screw the keyring inside and needless to say, that was a fruitless attempt but I then had a wild thought! What if I???

Opened

AHA!

The thing that really helped me here was to be sitting in a quiet room with no TV, radio or chattering complaining wife in it. This allowed me to listen to what was going on inside and whilst it's pretty subtle, there is a distinct extra unexpected sound that helped me work out what was the next thing to try and it worked. I have to say that it is very elegant. The quality of the workmanship is incredible. It isn't the voyage that PicoLock was but it is stunning and fun. This is one to show colleagues - they may actually think it through given enough time.

Thanks Boaz - now I need to go back to Ant Hunt (not even found the first step) and Andrew Coles' Clutch Lock which I have made some progress but am now all "locked up" with. 😱