The other day, I got an email from a carver who wanted to know if he had the right tools to start carving ice. He told me he had a chainsaw, a drill, an ice pick, and a six prong ice chipper, along with safety equipment like gloves, boots, and eye and ear protection. I wrote back to him that he was very close to having exactly what I started with 19 years ago: a chainsaw, a six prong, and a V chisel, along with the safety equipment. It turns out that he’s only really missing a V chisel or some other tool, such a die grinder and detailing bit, that can be used to detail his sculptures.

    The three tools that I started with offer a simple way to classify ice tools and also help illustrate the process that an ice carver generally goes through to create a sculpture. The chainsaw is generally a rough cutting tool. The six prong is a shaping/smoothing tool. (although the end result is a little rough) Finally, the V chisel is a refining/detailing tool. Using these three tools in sequence demonstrate a very basic way to complete a sculpture: chainsaw - six prong - V chisel; roughcut - shape & smooth - detail.

    Certainly, there are other aspects to carving ice that don’t fit within this very simple framework. Applying a design to the ice, either with a template or drawing on the ice, doesn’t fit and neither does any sort of welding. But this is just a very basic way of looking at the carving process and of classifying ice tools. Here’s some examples of tools and their classifications.

roughcutters

chainsaw

handsaw

shapers/smoothers

six prong

flat chisel

bullet burr bit on a heavy duty die grinder

angle grinder

Junichi keyhole saw

ice knife

detailers

V chisel

V or straight bit on a die grinder

straight bit or ice needle on a dremel tool

There’s also some crossover within the groups. You could easily argue that a chainsaw could fit in all three groups. The idea in this case is to pick the tool’s primary function.

    Comments or feedback? Feel free to post it below. For another entry on ice tool actions, check out tool actions and effects on ice from last year. Thanks!