What should i use to carve pumpkin

Scoop out all of the seeds and filling inside of the pumpkin with a large spoon. Then, scrape the inside of the pumpkin with your spoon to remove any soft tissue and prevent rotting.

Now, cut out your design with the knife using an up and down motion along each line you drew. Finally, set a candle or light inside of your carved pumpkin and put the top back on. For design suggestions and tips, scroll down! Did this summary help you? Yes No. Log in Social login does not work in incognito and private browsers. Please log in with your username or email to continue. No account yet? Create an account. Edit this Article. We use cookies to make wikiHow great.

By using our site, you agree to our cookie policy. Cookie Settings. Learn why people trust wikiHow. Download Article Explore this Article parts. Pumpkin Carving Templates. Tips and Warnings. Things You'll Need. Related Articles. Article Summary. Pumpkin Carving Templates Happy Jack-o'-lantern. Crazy Jack-o'-lantern. Scary Teeth Jack-o'-lantern. Missing Teeth Jack-o'-lantern.

Scary Jack-o'-lantern. Nightmare Jack-o'-lantern. Graveyard Jack-o'-lantern. Witch Hat Jack-o'-lantern. Haunted House Jack-o'-lantern. Black Cat Jack-o'-lantern. Part 1. All rights reserved. This image may not be used by other entities without the express written consent of wikiHow, Inc.

Buy a pumpkin shortly before Halloween. Although Halloween excitement can build early in October especially for children , do not buy your pumpkin too early. Most pumpkins will be rotten beyond recovery after a week and a half to two weeks. With this in mind, buy your pumpkin about a week or less before Halloween. Select a pumpkin from a pumpkin patch or supermarket.

Many venues will sell carving pumpkins as Halloween approaches. Visit your local supermarket or pumpkin patch for a good offering.

If you live near a farmer's market, vendors there may also sell pumpkins. If you're pumpkin hunting with young children, a pumpkin patch may be the most fun for them. You can find a local pumpkin patch by searching online or keeping an eye open for advertisements around the area where you live.

Select a healthy pumpkin. When you're choosing a pumpkin, try to pick one that's free of nicks, bruises, and cuts. Look for a sturdy stem that doesn't feel too bendable, and for a mostly consistent color all the way around. Look for a pumpkin with a flat base. This will make it easier to display the carved pumpkin on Halloween night.

It's not important if the pumpkin you like is clean or dirty. Remember you can always wash the pumpkin with an old cloth when you get home. Pick the size you need. If you're planning on an elaborate pumpkin carving, note that a larger gourd will provide more surface space, but also takes more work to carve.

Selecting a round, medium-sized pumpkin is a popular option. If you have kids and simply plan on drawing faces on your pumpkins with a permanent marker, try picking up several small to medium samples for them to put different designs on. Part 2. Choose a design before you start carving. Alternatively, drop into your local library and borrow a book of carving ideas. A variety of images can be very inspirational for developing your own.

Choose a method for carving your pumpkin. While it's conventional to hollow your pumpkin and then carve through the outer gourd into the hollow center, other methods of carving will allow your pumpkin to last longer, and involve less work with knives. A few popular carving options include: Carve a traditional jack-o'-lantern. Plan to cut out eyes, a mouth, and perhaps a nose. This design is easiest for beginners. Carve a silhouette. You'll end up with a circle of light around the dark shape, with lighted details.

Carve down to the pulp. Just insert the attachment's shaft into your drill chuck, as you would a drill bit. Have a helper hold the pumpkin steady, then turn on your drill, and the attachment will loosen and grip the gunk for you.

Dishwasher safe. Don't bother using dull kitchen knives on poor defenseless pumpkins. Make clean and quick cuts with this battery-operated pumpkin jigsaw. Replaceable saw blades snap into place, and the clear saw guard doesn't obstruct your view of the pattern. An ergonomic handle makes for easier carving. Typically used for printmaking, these linoleum cutters are ideal for shaving away the surface of pumpkins—leaving an interesting "striped" or "lined" texture—and for transferring patterns.

The long-lasting, interchangeable steel tips can be stored right in the tool's handle. This set features one of each cutting edge, including a liner, v-gouge, large line, u-gouge, large gouge, and knife.

It also includes two handles, making for fewer tip changes. Transferring patterns to pumpkins via the poking method—that is, using a toothpick or some other kind of poker to dot an image onto the pumpkin's surface—can be tedious.

Cut transfer time in half by placing a piece of this paper it works the same way carbon paper does for documents under a pattern and tracing the design right onto the pumpkin.

There's no getting around it: Sometimes all you need is a good blade to get the carve you want. This set features a walnut handle with a brass chuck that accommodates six serrated carving blades—three heavy-duty blades for larger cuts and three fine-tooth blades for small details.

The blades are made of high-carbon steel, and a wrench is included for blade changing. This is a special attachment for your drill that gets in there, and with the kind of power only available on heavy machinery, absolutely goes to town scraping away the pumpkin guts.

Don't toil away clearing out your pumpkins: be efficient with this tool that'll make your jack-o-lanterns the envy of the neighborhood. It's possible to buy little tea lights in huge quantities on Amazon for not much money, like this set that's available in a pack of or Think of all of the pumpkins you could carve with this many lights. In fact, let's make it a challenge: carve as many pumpkins as there are tea lights in this pack.

If you prefer not to have any kind of fire risk, you can go with electric tea lights for lighting your pumpkin. These fancy ones have a timer and a remote control, so you can schedule them to turn off when you want to signal to those pesky neighborhood middle schoolers that you're closed for business when they try to go trick or treating at 9pm.

If you don't roast the pumpkin seed loot from your carving, you're totally missing out on one of the best parts of the whole experience. Here's how to roast pumpkin seeds. Though it's very simple and requires few tools, you'll need to make sure you have a colander for rinsing them. We like this affordable one with a base that will sit nicely in your sink while you rinse.

Be honest with yourself: has your sheet pan gotten a little worse for the wear? How long have you had that thing? Does it have weird stuff baked onto the bottom? Is it kind of greasy?

Treat yourself to a new sheet pan this fall so you can roast pumpkin seeds happily and endlessly. If you want actually useful, multi-purpose kitchen tools: There are a lot of specific pumpkin carving kits you can buy, but if you don't want a set of hyper specific tools that you'll have to store and pull out of the depths of your storage closet next year if you're me they'll just end up lost , here are multi-purpose kitchen tools you can use year-round.

Serrated Utility Knife. Paring Knife. Ice Cream Scoop.