Toolbox Talk

Those of you who have worked in industry for any length of time will probably have read my title and shuddered. The anticipation of that fresh faced job site official with an exceptionally clean hiviz jacket and their jeans tucked into their new rigger boots, preparing to tell you everything they know about nothing, just so they can put a tick in your box. Well you’ll be pleased to hear that’s NOT where I’m going here!

In my last blog I talked bout my trip to Ice Alaska in 2024. Well earlier this year I returned to bootcamp but stayed to compete in the World Ice carving Multiblock competition. As a chainsaw wood carver I can do a lot with a single chainsaw. It is without doubt the most versatile cutting tool available. It’s the only three dimensional cutting tool, available in petrol, battery, electric and even hydraulic. It’s completely mobile and whilst they’re originally person operated, they’re now also integrated into machines. That’s great when you’re cutting wood but other mediums like ice, foam and even rock, they might not be quite as versatile a tool.

Last year I took what I knew about wood carving and simply applied it to ice, this year I expanded and looked at what other tools were available. There is a good selection of rotary grinding tools available for wood of which I use sparingly, but they also work well on ice and in fact there is an even greater range of particularly vicious and dangerous but very efficient cutters available for ice.

What I really took to this year are chisels. The benefit of chisels on ice over wood is that there’s no grain to follow so you can have a very clean cut regardless of direction. The sound of a 4 inch wide chisel sliding through a 2 tonne block of ice is absolutely incredible. “Pickle forks” often home made from sheep sheer blades can remove huge amounts of ice in quick time for roughing out and texturing whilst V-chisels can be used to put in beautiful decorative lines. All sharpened to the point you can shave with them, well maybe not the pickle fork! Last year I brought home a selection of rotary cutters, this year I returned with two modified grinders for working in the cold and two chisels. The “circle of doom” has begun!