How to Carve Up an Ice Block, Tools to Use, and Making Clear Ice at Home

There is a lot of ice awesomeness on one page of Saveur magazine's website. 

In the June/July Drink insert in the magazine I wrote a story on how to break down an ice block into big cubes, spheres, spears, cobbler, shaved, crushed, and other ice shapes. 

Instructions are on the page, along with a very brief history of the ice trade. 

To accompany the story, Richard Boccato from Hundredweight Ice in New York went to the Saveur studio and broke down an ice block.

The pieces of ice he made are shown in the images above (and there are a lot more on the site). Saveur also made a lovely video of the process. Here's a still from the video:

You can see his techniques and tools in the video, plus it's just pretty. The video is at the bottom of this page. 

Then, on another page I suggest some ice tools to buy. The chisel was Boccato's suggestion. I'm getting used to using it still, but it makes sense. 

Finally, I also describe how to make clear ice at home.

Of course, you've probably already read how to do that here on Alcademics. 

So that should satisfy your ice needs for today.