Sounds great, as a fellow scavenger I am deeply sympathetic to wanting to rescue the pavers.

My advice would be to focus on what you want the pavers to do for you rather than working at ferreting out what was done with them before.

If you have squares and rectangles they were probably used separately from the hex/stem pieces, or maybe as a border around them.

I would absolutely agree with laying them out where you want them first and then installing properly later. The other option, probably less ideal due to the storage issue, is to make little paper cutouts of the shapes you have (as many as you have of each) and play with them to design your layout. Easier on the hands! Kids are handy for this option. Or, draw on grid paper.

You will probably have to discard the cut ones, but wait to see if they coincidentally work with your design.

Thanks for the paper pattern idea to play around with. My hands aren't as much a worry as my back. Unfortunitly most of the pavers are cut-and at angles besides!! These could be leftovers, mistakes and scraps because there aren't that many not cut and there are alot of little pieces. Seems there is enough of squares and rectangles to border a little path. Many have had corners cut off and some are varying romboudal shapes and triangles etc. At least half of the octagonal/squares have had the octagonal end cut to flush up with the opposing pieces square end. This leads me to place them flush with the borders going the long way.

My first idea with the angles didn't work out but I have another after sorting better. As I put similar angles together I got a better idea of what can maybe work with the direction the angles are going. By putting a couple of bands of border peices across the middle, I'll be able to use more of the cut ends to flush up against them. I need to turn a corner and might be able to figure something out. I'm going to blend it into a slate path as it finishes turning the corner.

Maybe I could recut some to make things more workable.

Anybody have experience with cutting these things? Could we rent something and how hard is it to get the hang of it?

I enjoy thr challenge of solving a giant puzzle, but it's going to eat hours of valuable holiday prep time....wish I could leave it until afterwards but you gotta get things when you find them and all those little piles of different shapes would just be too much trouble to set aside.

When I get a bee in my bonnet like that one, I need to ferret out the answer too! We have used a cutter, and found it to be a pretty effective tool, except if you are trying to cut very thin slices off a brick. You can rent them, and it's not rocket science to use it.

Two additional ideas: you could cut the hexes and stems apart to increase your design flexibility, although you increase your likelihood of weeds growing through and decrease their stability (need edging and so forth) - but it might help in the odd corner.

Also, this is a readily available brick. It might not be a crime to buy some extras if your "found" stash doesn't fully meet your needs.