Anything worth doing is worth doing badly – at first. (I don’t know the source of that quote.)
My first attempt at the puzzle fit that quote perfectly. It was crude in every way. So, some analysis, and then some more attention to details.
I used a scroll saw on the first try. It did not seem to work very well for me. I could not control where the cut would go. Soon it was outside the lines and could not be easily fixed.
I tried using a chisel to clean up the cuts, but without supporting the piece. The results were torn out wood.
The next time I used a jig saw instead of the scroll saw. Here I seemed to have better control. But I still went outside the lines. I think I was trying to do too much in one pass. This version is improved, but still fairly crude.
Try number 3: Again I used the jig saw, but took much more care with the process. This time the cut was all within the lines. I then did the fitting using a file, the same manner as Steve.
I think the final product qquality is good, although the pros among us may disagree.
I did not include any photos because they don’t show enough details to be relevant.