Sunday, October 09, 2005

Photo Post #1 Pykrete

So the long awaited post has arrived. The way I think I want to run this post is I will present the photo and then explain a little about it. Enjoy.


This first picture here is me with a block of pykrete. What is pykrete you ask? Why only the secret weapon that was going to win the second world war! That is before the a-bomb was invented and before long range bombers were built. In other words it is a cool idea that was abandoned as having no useful purpose. In reality its useful purpose is to entertain Chris and Matt and keep them out of Maryanne's hair for a while (and in it for a while when filling small garbage cans with water and sawdust in the laundry room)


This is me at Beacon Hill park here in Victoria trying to melt the pykrete. I'm using the creme brulee torch that we got as a wedding present. Conclusion - pykrete doesn't so much melt as smolder, it is soaked, frozen sawdust after all. Also it melts/smolders a lot slower then just regular clean ice.


We next decided to try and cut it in half. this is Matt sawing pykrete in the middle of Beacon Hill park. We found that it doesn't chip like ice does when you try and cut it. Instead it cuts just like wood. Really dense hardwood that is. After a long time of cutting we got tired bored and decided that we really should go squirrel fishing.

This is the last moment that we spent with the pykrete. We sawed off a corner and decided to abandon it at the park. As is traditional in Victoria when you don't want something leave it outside with free written on it and it will vanish. We thought that we would try to see if anyone would take it. Nobody did to our knowledge.

Well That concludes the pykrete segment of the adventure. More to follow.

5 comments:

Queen of West Procrastination said...

I have a few comments to make here. First of all: do y'all see that giant garbage bag in the background of the picture of Chris with the block? That's full of sawdust. That same bag of sawdust (acquired from a complaint local woodworker) still sits in our storage room. You will also notice our wedding gifts being put to good use:
a.) cooler used to transport pykrete;
b.) creme brulee torch used to attempt to melt pykrete.

And they weren't so much "out of my hair" as "making a mess in the laundry room, and sometimes I still find little piles of sawdust under the washer". And sometimes my communication style is "passive-agressive, using quotation marks."

I think I've fulfilled my assigned role on this blog. Oh! And if anyone wants any free pykrete, there are still two blocks of it in our deep freeze.

Queen of West Procrastination said...

And we had lots of fun with Matt in town.

Anonymous said...

I love that not only does Maryanne have her own blog (which she fills up quite well), she also posts in great detail (and talks back and forth to her husband) on this one. I miss Mary! And Chris!

Anonymous said...

Oh, don't be too hard on Chris. He really did need to do some science (or at least pretend science) stuff. Happy Thanksgiving to you both! Yay pictures of pykrete, with squirrel pictures to come!

Anonymous said...

"In other words it is a cool idea that was abandoned as having no useful purpose."
I don't think that is actually true. My mom tells me that people use pykrete in ice houses. They used to use it in the cream well at my grandpa's farm. I think that is a useful purpose. Or do you mean no useful purpose for you.