I'll be adding shave ice to my concession trailer biz this May and I am concern about consistently and easily spliting the 10lb. ice blocks... from what I've read it seems sometimes the blocks just crumble or break uneven and I was wondering if someone has a good method or does it just take practice? Thanks!

This is a pretty common question, and a quite easy solution. What I do is that, I first leave the ice out for a couple minutes so that it is not freezer dry. Ice that comes out from the freezer chips easily so I let it thaw a bit. After around 2 minutes, using a ice pick I would first lightly chip around the block of ice (all for sides). Remember to not chip too hard, just chip lightly so that it makes a small divot in the ice. Once you made the divot, you could now chip into the ice with more force and it should pretty much crack open like a egg shell(but straighter). There may sometimes be some slight uneveness, just chip away the small protruding pieces and you would be good to go!

Well said capitalist!

I have a traditional method for you. Put the ice block in a couple of garbage bags. Tie the garbage bags shut. Raise the ice block over your head and slam it on the ground as hard as you can. Repeat until the pieces are small enough, and take them out of the garbage bag. Save the garbage bags for later.

That's a classic .

May be real late on this but I use a 6 prong chipper (http://www.pricefalls.com/products/6-Pr ... d/26490371) to carve a line down the middle of the block about an inch deep then take a hammer and give the chipper a tap splitting the block smoothly. Pretty quick method. Here is a youtube video using the same process. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8MmY7030 ... 3FFE03F9D2

haoleshaveice wrote:May be real late on this but I use a 6 prong chipper (http://www.pricefalls.com/products/6-Pr ... d/26490371) to carve a line down the middle of the block about an inch deep then take a hammer and give the chipper a tap splitting the block smoothly. Pretty quick method. Here is a youtube video using the same process. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8MmY7030 ... 3FFE03F9D2

That way works as well, in fact that is what I do when chipping the blocks with a ice pick.