Ice Meets Chainsaw

Ice nerds got a real treat this Tuesday, for Andrew Bohrer from Seattle was guest bartending in San Francisco along with Amanda Womack from Cask. 

He brought chainsaw Thursday to the city in order to chop up giant blocks of clear ice from an industrial ice maker into big cubes that could be further cut into ice balls. 

Keep scrolling for videos of hand ice carving… or click here for an index of all of the ice experiments on Alcademics.

Andrew erik cutting giant ice block

First they cut slices off the big blocks, then cut those into long rectangles. Then they cut those into cubes. 

Erik measuring ice block
Carlos yturria chainsaw1s

Click below for the videos. 

Note: there is some NSFW language in the videos along with chainsaw noise.

First they started with the giant block and shaved off slices. 

Then they cut those slices into rectangles

Then they cut those rectangles into cubes.

Then Andrew Bohrer demonstrated cutting an ice cube into an ice sphere using the shaving method.

 

Then he showed how he makes shaved ice by shaving ice.

 

Then he showed how he takes a big chunk of ice and with a knife can reduce it down to cubes. I wish I had his skillz!

 

Then Amanda Womack shows how she cuts ice spheres- by tapping at the outside with a knife rather than shaving.

 

Comments

40 responses to “Ice Meets Chainsaw”

  1. dave Avatar

    Wow, great videos. Did Andrew happen to give any specific info on the knives he uses? It looked like both he and Amanda were using Japanese knives, and I’m wondering how much details like steel hardness and edge angle matter to the various stages of ice prep.

  2. Camper English Avatar

    Thanks Dave- Yes both the knives shown are Japanese knives. In one of the videos Andrew talks about why he uses them- because he can also cut citrus and other things with it and keep working without changing all the time. Amanda said that he used to use an ice pick to carve ice balls. They also used a third, smaller knife that looked like a big citrus knife that came with a colored cover (I don’t know the names of knives.)

  3. Sarah Avatar
    Sarah

    I hope Andrew’s hands are clean 😉

  4. Christopher Avatar
    Christopher

    It looks like Amanda is using a Shun Classic of some sort (you can get them at Sur La Table). The handle of Andrew’s knife looks like a MAC Professional, though the angled tip is different from any of my MAC knives.

  5. Pdxcocktails Avatar

    I admit to being totally amazed by the carving/shaving and the hand splitting of cubes. Ice doesn’t do that in my hands! I was thinking maybe because that ice was warm, but he was actually complaining about it being warm!

  6. Andrew Avatar
    Andrew

    BTW I’m going to get NSFW tattooed on my knuckles

  7. erik_ellestad Avatar

    The smaller knife is from the Shun Pro Line.
    He told us what the larger knife was, another Japanese Manufacturer, but I forget. It was a very nice knife.

  8. Vidiot Avatar

    They were using Globals for the ice balls for the Spirited Awards at Tales:
    https://www.flickr.com/photos/vidiot/4845507484/
    and the pics around there. I really should go find the video and post it.

  9. Camper English Avatar

    Yes please! I’d like to see as many ways as possible of doing it.

  10. UKMerlin Avatar

    One for the knife fans:
    Been doing very similar work here in the UK over the last year or so. We’ve had a lot of success with these knives:
    Shun 7″ Santoku Blade
    NSF Miu 7″ Santoku
    Japanese single bevel edge, forge steel 3″ ice blade
    Silky Okata folding saws for larger blocks
    A hammer and pitchfork ice pick for splitting huge lumps (after scoring the break lines with the saw)
    Porsche Type 301 blade
    Knives that haven’t worked well:
    Global brand knives
    Sabatier knives
    And for knives in funky colours there’s a fantastic daily use selection of blades from Switzerland under the brand Kuhn Ricon (Colori II range).
    Hope that helps!
    (And this sort of ice work will certainly feature in my next set of cocktail videos!)

  11. Camper English Avatar

    Thanks Merlin- and let us know when those videos are posted!

  12. Ryan Avatar
    Ryan

    I love the idea of ‘Chainsaw Thursday!

  13. Cody Avatar
    Cody

    Camper, do you know how they are storing these cubes? I’d assume they aren’t using them immediately which means refreezing them, is there a way they have found (that you could share) that keeps them from refreezing to each other and cracking when broken apart?
    Cheers!

  14. Camper English Avatar

    I have answers! One person says when they put them back in the freezer he just leaves space between cubes at first, then moves them closer together after they’ve been in there a bit. A second person says he does “Nothing special, just a little tap tap tappy with the ice pick to separate.”
    Two other people say to spray a little vodka on the cubes before storing them in the freezer and they’ll not stick together. Which sounds like a cool experiment to try!

  15. nic lazzareschi Avatar

    I know this is an old post by my question is related to the chainsaw. Chainsaws use oil to lube the bar, does it not get on the ice? I am aware that you are using a electric chainsaw not gas as well. Thoughts?

  16. Camper English Avatar

    Yes electric chainsaw. Most bartenders say they don’t use any oil in them. I’ve heard others use cooking oil but I think no oil is more common.

  17. nic lazzareschi Avatar

    Thanks so much! Thats kinda strange because they chainsaw will get destroyed so fast without the oil. Hmmmmmm…..

  18. Camper English Avatar

    The bartenders have said to buy inexpensive electric chainsaws and if they break just replace them. Not sure how often that happens.

  19. nic lazzareschi Avatar

    Oh ok. Right on. Thanks a ton for the quick response.

  20. ahmad Avatar
    ahmad

    dear hope you doing well
    we need cristal block dimention 90x50x23 cm
    we need 300pcs aday
    advise us for the best factory to prodiose the ice bloco

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