It’s not real snow, not usually. But it sure looks like it.

    I’m talking about the tiny ice bits that result from ice sculpting. Put a lot of them together in one place, and you appear to have snow, although a microscope or magnifying glass would reveal chunks much less attractive than what Mr. Bentley first photographed. Not long ago, a friend asked me the easiest way to make “snow” while carving. He’d been struggling with his own method, which I think involved an angle grinder with an abrasive pad. So that got me thinking, and I thought I’d put down pretty much everything I know about the snow that ice sculptors deal with.

    Somewhere around the start of the 90’s, snow filled ice logos started to become a big deal in the world of ice sculptures. Mark Daukas gets much of the credit for establishing this style, which is almost like printing on ice. Instead of black print on white paper, we have white “printing” on clear ice, with hopefully a contrasting background behind it. This method is referred to by various names: snowfilling, ice engraving, snow packed... I like to call it “white-on-ice” to differentiate it from the backfilling color methods that ice artists now employ. The white-on-ice method allows detailed logos, graphics, or drawings to be depicted in ice in a fairly durable and precise presentation that can be quite stunning visually. With the expanded use of CNC machines in the industry, snowfilled ice is now common, largely because a CNC machine is ideal for producing this sort of ice art, which can sometimes be tedious to create by hand.

This Crown Royal logo, for an event some years ago in Mississippi, is an example of the snowfilling, or white-on-ice technique

    Back to the question that prompted this article: “What’s the easiest way to make snow while carving?” Well, there are a variety of methods, of which you can choose the one that works best for you at the time. But first, if you have an ice CNC, you can skip this section because you have snow in your freezer in abundance. You’d likely be more interested in an article that talks about quick ways to get rid of all the snow that your CNC creates!

    Do you need clean snow?

   Before you make your snow, you should decide if you need clean snow or not. If the snow will be used to hold a luge tube in its track, for example, it should be very clean because some of the melting snow will run down the sculpture and find its way into the drinks.  Snow from an oily chainsaw might be a bad choice in this case. On the other hand, if your sculpture won’t come in contact with any food or drink, then it’s probably okay to use any snow, as long as it’s white. (Still not okay to use yellow snow.)

    You get clean snow by cutting into clean ice with clean tools. When I need clean snow, I use a clean endmill bit (usually 1/2”) in my die grinder and I’ll generally cut into an ice surface that hasn’t yet been dragged across the floor. Endmill bits, of course, can be very dangerous, so hopefully I don’t need a whole bunch of clean snow. In a later entry, I’ll share my recent near miss experience with a 1/2” endmill bit. (kind of a how-not-to-do-this guide) Snow from a large cutting endmill usually shoots out of the ice, so I just shoot it into a clean container. If I’m carving outside the freezer, obviously I have to move quickly to use the snow before it melts.

    Things become considerably easier if the snow only has to be white, not food-service clean. Chainsaws produce snow in copious amounts, so if I’m splitting several blocks in the freezer, I’ll often place a bus tub under the saw and collect as much I can. Then, when I’m done, I’ll store it in a covered 18 gallon Rubbermaid container to use later. Sometimes the first snow that comes off your saw is a little dirty, so I get rid of that. After that though, the snow is usually white and fine. When you’re in the freezer, this method has the added benefit of saving you some clean up work later.

    A chainsaw isn’t the only ice power tool that generates a lot of snow. Two other very strong candidates are burr bits on a die grinder (such as the bullet burr below) or a burr disc on an angle grinder (such as the disc seen further down). Both of these tools will cover the walls of your freezer with snow if used haphazardly; the description that I like to use is that “it looks like a snowman exploded!” I don’t usually use these tools for clean snow, because it’s tough to clean them. And both have some sort of hardened paint surfaces to protect against rust, so I’m not anxious to damage that. Finally, burr tools can be very aggressive, so it’s important that they be handled safely!

     So far I’ve only talked about power tools that generate snow, but there is a hand tool that does a pretty good job: the nailboard. It’s also very efficient; virtually all the “snow” created by moving it across a not-quite-flat ice surface can be recovered. However, the resulting snow isn’t quite as fine as that from the power tools. But it’s a great option when there’s not a power outlet in sight!

    Finally, there’s the natural option: real snow. If, unlike me, you’re in an area that gets a significant amount of snow in the winter months, you can use the white stuff with very little effort required. Sometimes, it’s tough to find clean snow, especially if it’s been a while since it fell. But I usually manage when I’m fortunate enough to be in a naturally cold setting. Interestingly, the last time I was in Fairbanks and needed a lot of snow (see the picture at top), I had some unexpected trouble. Fairbanks is surely the Ice Sculpture Capital of North America, and maybe even the world, but it won’t be the Snowball Capital any time soon. That’s because the snow there is so dry that it won’t clump together. Perhaps it’s not that way all the time, but I have my suspicions. When I was making the jersey of “Cool Brees” white, I had to grab a handful of snow, dip it into almost-freezing water, then pack it on to the ice in order to get it to stick; it wouldn’t stick on its own at all. The initial result was a jersey that was a little grey. However, as I expected, it whitened up some after it froze solid.

   

    What it’s good for?

   

    As previously discussed, “snow” can be used in the white-on-ice technique to integrate all sorts of designs, logos, or other graphics into the surface of your ice. Prior to the invention of this method, ice sculptors generally had to rely on the edges of their ice to get their design across; ice doesn’t shadow like other media, so intricate details can be lost visually if they’re not incorporated into a sculpture’s silhouette. Snowfilling, however, usually offers enough contrast of white snow against clear ice so that important aspects of a sculpture don’t always need to be part of its silhouette.

    Fine snow is also great for attaching pieces of ice to one another, whether as part of the plan or in a repair situation. When I first started using a die grinder, I marveled at how useful the snow was at putting broken ice back together and I still think of it as “ice superglue.” Since then, aluminum welding has come onto the scene, so fine snow isn’t as indispensable for repair, but it still has its place.

    Another use for snow is thermal protection. I typically move sculptures around a large geographical area and I can’t always guarantee that the ice won’t start melting before I get to my destination. So, often, I’ll put a thin layer of snow over snowfilled designs and freeze it into place. This layer adds a little insurance and is easy to remove at set up.

    Finally, the best use for snow (in my opinion) is also the funnest one! If during an ice sculpting demo, I were to hurl small chunks of excess ice at my audience, I hardly think they would appreciate it. However, if I use a bullet burr, angle grinder, or chainsaw to send small showers of snow their way, they love it! Much like the splash rows at Seaworld or the raincoat rows at a Gallagher show, that area within reach of my streams of snow is easily the most popular, especially amongst the younger spectators. They get a little cold, maybe a little wet, but they don’t seem to mind. In fact, they yell for it, saying “Shoot some over here!”

    What it’s bad for

    There are a couple of downsides to snow as it pertains to ice sculpting. If you’re carving in the cold, like sand at the beach, snow will probably be everywhere! It can make sculpting in freezing temps an unpleasant experience as it covers you, gets into places you didn’t really expect, then melts from your body heat. From time to time, it’s a good idea to change your clothes, your gloves especially, when you’re working in the cold.

    Also, when you’re carving in the freezer, snow is bad for another reason: sublimation. Sublimation is the phase change where a solid goes straight to a gas, skipping the liquid phase. In this case ice and snow go straight to water vapor, which ends up on your freezer cooling fins which then, of course, freezes.  Most freezers depend on low humidity to work properly and if there’s a lot of snow in your freezer, then the surface area available for sublimation is dramatically higher than normal. The resulting high humidity can actually crash your freezer by blocking up the unit with ice; the only way to fix this is to clear it away or melt it away during the defrost cycle. Many times, I’ve carved for extended periods, only to see my freezer start having trouble keeping up. Not surprisingly, this problem gets worse if it’s humid in your part of the word anyway (like in the Gulf South) or if your freezer isn’t working as efficiently as it should.

    In these dog days of summer, I look forward to the days of snow that again surely lie in my future. Just as surely, when I’m in their midst, I’ll again long for the warmth of summer days. But no matter; what counts is what I want now! Unless I can schedule a quick trip to the Southern Hemisphere however, for now I’ll have to make due with my frequent forays into the freezer to work. And while I’m in there, I’ll be doing my best Edward Scissorhands impersonation: making it snow.