> Mahjong solitaire with two years' work behind it: a carver's bench in Ningbo, 1889, and twenty-four stacks to cut. # Mahjong: The Bonecarver Mahjong solitaire with two years' work behind it: a carver's bench in Ningbo, 1889, and twenty-four stacks to cut. Free ยท Free download ## See it in action ![Customers arrive and talk first. How you answer decides what the set is worth.](https://evlarsoft.com/apps/game-mahjong/s2.jpg) Customers arrive and talk first. How you answer decides what the set is worth. ![Twenty-four shapes, from the Turtle to the Temple Steps, graded plain to cruel.](https://evlarsoft.com/apps/game-mahjong/s4.jpg) Twenty-four shapes, from the Turtle to the Temple Steps, graded plain to cruel. ![Five people across two years, and every one of them comes back for a second set.](https://evlarsoft.com/apps/game-mahjong/s1.jpg) Five people across two years, and every one of them comes back for a second set. ![Or a quick set: one shape at random, with nobody waiting on it.](https://evlarsoft.com/apps/game-mahjong/s3.jpg) Or a quick set: one shape at random, with nobody waiting on it. ## About Mahjong: The Bonecarver The old man's hands have gone. He has not said so, and you have not asked. What you have done is take the knife off the bench and start cutting the set he can no longer finish. Ningbo, 1889. Forty-seven years a treaty port, so the customs house is run by foreigners and staffed by locals, the compradors do well, and a carver's trade sits underneath all of it selling the same thing to every rank. A set is a hundred and forty-four pieces of bone and bamboo. It takes a season. People wait. ## Twenty-four stacks, and every one of them is proved A set is laid out as a shape - the Turtle, the Ingot, the Drum Tower, the Temple Steps - and you take it apart in pairs, matching only the tiles that are free. The stack is never shuffled onto the shape and hoped over. It is taken apart first, backwards, and the pairs are laid into that order in reverse. A way through therefore exists, always, in every deal. That is not the same as being shown it, and you can still strand yourself in thirty seconds - but a set you cannot finish is a set you played badly, never one you were dealt. ## Five people, and every one of them comes back Ten commissions across two years, from five customers who are somebody. A licensed salt merchant who has never in his life bought anything for pleasure. The ferryman at Sanjiangkou, who has made the crossing eleven thousand times. The woman who keeps the tea house on Drum Tower Street and sees a set as a thing that fills a room until dark. A comprador standing between a Scottish house and everyone who will not deal with it directly. A magistrate who has asked three carvers for a Pagoda, and watched all three fail to finish it. They arrive, they talk, and how you answer decides what the set is worth and what they think of you. Every one of them comes back, and the second visit is about the first - the comprador finally buying for himself, the magistrate admitting what he wanted all along. ## And fourteen more out of the pattern book Ye Sanguan kept every shape he was ever asked for, dated, going back to 1852 - a Shanxi banker's ingot, a rice broker's abacus, a coin off his own bench, the steps at Tiantong. Nobody is waiting on those. They are there to be cut for their own sake, and some of them are cruel. ## The set is a real one Thirty-four kinds four times over - circles, bamboo, characters, the four winds and the three dragons - plus the eight flowers and seasons, which match inside their own group rather than exactly. Six gradings, from plain up to cruel, and the grading describes what the shape does to you rather than how long it takes. Undo runs as far back as you want it to. Ask and a pair will be found for you. A half-struck set can be left on the bench and picked up days later exactly as you left it, and your time is kept against every commission you finish. ## Or just a quick set One shape at random and a fresh stack, with nobody waiting on it and nothing written down. The deal is drawn from over four billion arrangements per shape, so a shape you know well is never the same set twice. ## Free to Start The first four commissions are free, with no time limit on any of them: the salt merchant's Turtle, the ferryman's Bridge, the wall the salt merchant asks for next, and the Fan the tea house wants. One purchase opens the other twenty - the rest of the year, the second year, and the whole of the old man's pattern book. It stays open. The game shows small advertisements for this developer's own apps while it is unlocked-free; the purchase removes them. They are ours, served from our own site, with no advertising network, no tracking and no profile of you. No account and no server. Everything it knows about you is a file on your own machine. Built for Windows 11, and at home on Windows 10. ## Features - Twenty-four stacks out of a carver's pattern book - the Turtle, the Ingot, the Cicada, the Temple Steps - Every deal is proved solvable before you ever see it. The stack is taken apart first, then laid back - Ten commissions across two years in Ningbo, from five customers who are somebody - Every one of them comes back, and the second visit is about the first - Fourteen more shapes out of the old man's pattern book, dated back to 1852, with nobody waiting on them - A real set: 34 kinds four times over, plus the eight flowers and seasons that match within their group - Six gradings, from plain to cruel, describing what the shape does to you rather than how long it takes - Undo as far as you like, a pair found for you when you want one, and your time kept for every set - Park a half-struck set and come back to it days later exactly as you left it - Offline. No account, no server, and nothing about your play leaves the machine - Four shapes free. One purchase opens the other twenty, forever ## Details Works on Windows 10 (1809 or later) and Windows 11 Download About 20.6 MB Version 1.0.4, updated October 2026 First released August 2026 Price Free Category Puzzle & trivia ## Questions Anything else? [Ask us](https://evlarsoft.com/contact?topic=support&app=Mahjong%3A%20The%20Bonecarver) ### Which versions of Windows does it run on? Windows 10 (version 1809 or later) and Windows 11. ### Is it free? Yes. Mahjong: The Bonecarver is free to download. ### How do I get it? EvlarSoft apps are moving to direct downloads from this site. Ask to be notified and we will email you as soon as Mahjong: The Bonecarver is ready to download. ## More from EvlarSoft [![](https://evlarsoft.com/apps/game-nonogram/icon.png)**Nonograms: The Glasswright**Twelve windows to rebuild from the numbers.](https://evlarsoft.com/apps/game-nonogram)[![](https://evlarsoft.com/apps/game-minesweeper/icon.png)**Minesweeper: Deep Water**Twenty mined fields between you and open water.](https://evlarsoft.com/apps/game-minesweeper)[![](https://evlarsoft.com/apps/game-sudoku/icon.png)**Sudoku: The Compositor**Sudoku graded by the technique it takes.](https://evlarsoft.com/apps/game-sudoku) --- Source: https://evlarsoft.com/apps/game-mahjong