Tag: ice carving

  • 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. 

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  • Another Ice Banner Attempt

    You may think all I do is futz around with ice all day, and you'd be mostly correct (for proof, see the index of all of the ice experiments on Alcademics here). I attempted to make another site banner today using a clear piece of ice stamped with ALCADEMICS, but I think I like the orange peel one (too big as it is) better.

    Click it to see it bigger if you're interested.

    Ice banner
     
  • An Icy Weekend in Monterey

    This past weekend I spent about 12 hours cutting ice and it was awesome! As part of a bartender catering gig with Rye on the Road I worked a wedding and rehearsal dinner in Monterey. With a trusty ice saw and my new ice pick from Cocktail Kingdom I went to town on those blocks of ice, chopping out fat cubes, attempting to carve spheres, and even making a heart to show the ice how much I love it.

    Photo (9)

    Despite how it looks in this picture I didn't have my hand replaced with an ice saw, but now I'm thinking about it.
       

    Photo (7)

     

    An index of all of the ice experiments on Alcademics can be found here.

  • The New Alcademics Banner

    My experiments with ice continue. I've got a routine down to make clear chunks of ice and now I'm experimenting with freezing objects into it. As you can see I have some room to improve but I did make a groovy, if a bit large, new banner for Alcademics.

    Icebanner6width1000

  • Clear Ice Blocks at Home in an Igloo Cooler

    This post describes how to make a clear block of ice using a picnic cooler. Since I first wrote it in 2009, I have figured out a lot about ice, but this was the defining post for what would become known as "directional freezing." What is Directional Freezing? (the basic theory behind clear ice). 

    An index of all of the ice experiments on Alcademics can be found here. It's also a great place to start. 

     

    Before I figured this out, I tried many other experiments. 

    Early experiments were:

    And I had success with:

    I also learned some ways to cut ice into big chunks.

    Now I am trying to refine what I call the Pond Method, the concept that if we freeze water from the top down only (and not outside-in), all the trapped air that makes cloudy ice will be the last to freeze on the bottom of the container, rather than in the middle.

    In the last attempt I used a collapsible beer cooler. I had good success in getting clear ice, but found it really hard to get the ice out of a cooler. 

    Coolers

    This time I tried freezing water in a hard-sided plastic Igloo picnic cooler. Initially I left the cover closed, but after two days it had only barely started to freeze (a good sign for its insulating abilities) so then propped the cover open.

    Iceincoolers

    After a few days when the water looked almost completely frozen and I could see some cloudiness forming at the bottom, I removed the cooler from the freezer. I turned the cooler upside-down and waited for the ice block to drop out of the cooler. Presto! It was ready.

    There was a little unfrozen water at the bottom of the block (with only about a centimeter of ice covering it). This was easy to drain.

    Full block outside cooler (6)

    Then I just cut off the bottom cloudy part and had a big chunk. Easy!

    Once again, the secret to cutting ice is to score it about a centimeter with a knife or saw, then chip it away with an ice pick and hammer.

    Clearblock1s

    Conclusions:

    • I'm really surprised the cooler didn't crack after the ice expanded, but maybe it didn't because there was a little unfrozen water remaining.
    • This Igloo cooler is a totally workable vessel for making clear ice blocks in my home freezer. Hooray! Luckily it is of a shape that allows for easy removal of the ice block.

    Future experiments:

    • In this first experiment with the cooler I set the freezer temperature on the lowest setting. I'll see if this matters for clarity or if I can use the high setting for faster freezing.
    • I also want to try a disposable Styrofoam cooler (if I can find one this winter) just because there is no worry if it cracks, and this is the most reproducible vessel for other people to try at home.
    • I should attempt to find a flexible insulating material that can be made into other shapes, such as a tall and skinny shape (thermos?) that would more easily fit in the freezer and can make smaller cubes.

    Here are more clear pictures of the ice pulled out of the cooler with some of it unfrozen, and it after smashing off the unfrozen part. 

    Clear block_tn
    Clear after removing shell_tn