You can collect ice without silk touch, but you have to make sure that you have a tool that enchants it. Blue ice is much slicker than white ice, which makes it useful for boat travel. If you have a tool that is enchanted with silk touch, you can harvest blue ice with it.
This enchantment is required in order to mine ice blocks, but there are some variants of this block that you can find in other places as well. Silk touch is a special enchantment in Minecraft that can help you obtain special blocks. Is there a way to make ice in Minecraft?.What is the easiest way to get ice in Minecraft?.Do you need silk touch to get ice in Minecraft?.