Does anyone have experience carving Ice?

Although this question isn't directly related to me carving a Tiki out of Ice, I have taken on some work over the winter producing Ice Sculptures for a Bar I have been working on, but to be honest I've never done it before.
Does anyone have any experience they could impart?
From what I hear it is easier than wood, but then I find out things like you cannot carve at temperatures under -7 degrees, unfortunately the temp where I am to be working has been colder in recent weeks.
Any help would be appreciated and if I have time I might try a Tiki with the spare block i have.

Nobody?

Sorry, my only experience in carving ice is to make small bits to go into a cocktail.

Having seen the process done on many occasions and in talking to a few of the people that have done it I can tell you that it is harder than it looks, and I mean that for both the process and the ice.

Brute-Force doesn't work because you will crack the entire block.

If your space it too warm your details will melt out too quickly. If your space is too cold the ice will get brittle and you risk detail work cracking off.

This is as told to me by a few different people and is not first-hand knowledge.

Now, if you want to make Tikis in the Sand I can help on that one.

Well I've started the Ice carving, its a lot easier than I thought it may be, I have enough ice to attempt Tiki when i'm finished up, so i'll post pics. only problem is we are experiencing the heaviest snow in 20 years 5metres and roughly 50 more cm a day, turn round to pick up anew tool and the carving has dissapeared.

I just saw this, sorry I didn't see it earlier. I've carved ice as part of catering gigs. Most folks have to do it at one time if they've had any Culinary Schooling, as I have no Schooling and was the Art Guy I got picked to do it. Commercial Ice is the best for carving, as it's vibrated as it freezes and you get a super hard, super clear block. I gather Outdoor Ice Sculpting shows are like Sand Sculpting Shows, as in the Ice is not just found Ice, any more than the Sand is just found Sand. I know the Sand goes through a ton of grooming before it's packed with Tampers and sometimes Steam Rollers. I used an electric turkey knife, wood rasps, electric chain saws and stiff putty knifes. I always had a hot plate with a pot of water on it that I dropped the blades of some of the tools in to give a polished surface. Got sick of buying carving ice so got whatever plastic containers I could find of any size, and cut a 1/3 of the container away. Reattached it with a hot glue gun on the outside of the container. Got an old electric drill, put a long bit in it, Duct Taped a piece of scrap wood to it, set the trigger button and let it smack the container all night. Instant hard ice. You can pull the Hot Glue away with the panel and it makes it easier to get the bastard outta your mold. A piece of rope frozen in the top helps too.
As far as being too cold to carve, I dunno, I live in Georgia.
Laffo

..i have no ice carving experience....

however, i have been known to have the power to melt ice just by staring at it....

Did smoke some 'Ice' once ok twice at the most. really it was a couple of years !!!
I better now.

Thanks Uncle Laffo,, well i ended up taking the bull by the horns and just going for it, you can see the results here http://www.tikicentral.com/viewtopic.php?topic=26730&forum=6&5

Most of my worries were unecessary in the end, ice is pretty easy to carve and fairly robust, you can even mend mistakes.
I have to go make more in a couple of weeks and i,m going to do a Tiki for myself. We also have plans for some other tiki based fun in the Alps too, more soon.

Wow, those ice drinks are sweet. Tiki mugs, made from pure ice, the farthest material from ancient Polynesian. Looks like blue lights in there? Blue fires that would be hot.

On 2007-12-27 11:05, teaKEY wrote:
Wow, those ice drinks are sweet. Tiki mugs, made from pure ice, the farthest material from ancient Polynesian. Looks like blue lights in there? Blue fires that would be hot.

Alps, snow, ice and glaciers are as much a part of New Zealand's history and lifestyle as they are in Europe. Maori had to cross the Southern Alps regularly to take pounamu (jade) from the West to the East Coast. There is a great book about the old pathways. There were personified names for the various forms of snow, hail and ice. Maori were well familiar with building snow caves to survive blizzards, and we also have the world's only alpine parrot:

Slightly more on-topic - I did have the opportunity to carve ice at a sculpture symposium down at the glaciers (about a 3 hour drive from where I live, alps are 1 hour away) a couple of years back, but to my regret I didn't have the tools or the time available to give it a go.

Seems that you Have learned a Lot about Ice Carving Already. I have never carved Ice but have seen it carved a number of times. If I were wanting to learn all the hints and tips for Ice carving I would nose around some of the finer restaurants where they regularly carve the stuff,Cruise ships also are Always looking to impress their customers and the artists are Always the chefs and they are usually eager to please and I imagine if they had the time would love to answer questions and offer any info they thought may help. They may also be interested in learning Wood carving so a trade of sorts would be a possibility.
Good luck and Keep us posted, though like I said earlier you have already graduated the primary class.