Reader Question: Best Way To Carve Pumpkins
By Sean O'Hara
There are those who can transform a normal pumpkin into an impossibly good-looking piece of slowly decomposing art — and there are those like myself and reader Kevin L. who can’t. This Halloween, Kevin is giving pumpkin-carving a shot, and he asks the Toolmonger readership how best to create an impressive pumpkin.
Here in the Toolmonger shop we can do many things with pumpkins — blow them up, crush them with power tools, fling pumpkin guts at each other, and even make them into pies — but carving is not among our talents. What tools should Kevin use, and how should he go about it? Let us know in comments.
October 7th, 2008 at 11:46 am
jigsaw, no question, its easy and fast. its also WAY safer than using a knife. You are just going to just cut yourself with it. I use a jigsaw and drill. Maybe its not good for detail work, but I am not doing detail work (go get a dremel).
if you dont want to screw up your good skill jigsaw…. use a cheap harbor freight one! Help work on that national defecit.
2 cents…
October 7th, 2008 at 12:04 pm
I use a broken scroll saw blade, with e-tape wrapped around one end for a grip.
October 7th, 2008 at 12:34 pm
Has anyone ever thought about using a Dremel tool? They make a pumpkin carving kit that comes with bits that removes the skin, versus cutting through the entire pumpkin. This allows shading as shown above in your picture. I recently saw these at Lowe’s.
October 7th, 2008 at 12:40 pm
My personal combination of tools include a couple of different knives (different widths and lengths) and my trusty dremel with an assortment of bits. I use the knives for any of the cutting and most of the carving, and the dremel for removing skin to various depths for a translucent effect. A few other tips: after cutting the pumpkin open, soak it in cold water for a period of time to firm up the flesh of the pumpkin to make carving intricate details easier. After carving, coat exposed areas with lemon juice, petroleum jelly or white glue to slow decay. Finally, if you want an area to glow a different color, line the inside of the pumpkin with colored tissue paper pinned in place (but watch that it’s not at risk for catching on fire from the candle flame). Have fun!
October 7th, 2008 at 1:20 pm
Dremel! If you don’t have a Dremel already, you can pick up the carving one for less than $ 20. I think I’ve seen it for about $ 10.
October 7th, 2008 at 1:38 pm
You know, I’ve used a jig saw blade and a pair of vise grips for as long as I can remember. Works really well. We get one of the safety kits for the kids. I suppose a dremel would work, but it seems like it would throw a lot of pumpkin everywhere.
October 7th, 2008 at 9:40 pm
I use jigsaw blades that are ground down to be thinner in width and in depth both… leaving only a few mm behind the serrated edge and thinning the cutting edge.
October 8th, 2008 at 6:41 am
Check out the FAQ on this site:
http://www.pumpkingutter.com/
He is the jr. high art teacher where I went to school (though, not teaching when I was there, so I sadly missed getting first hand pumpkin experience) and he does an amazing job with pumpkins.
October 8th, 2008 at 8:56 am
I do very simple designs with Forstner bits. I like the nearly perfect holes. Once I spelled “happy haloween” using a 5×7 dot matrix.
October 8th, 2008 at 11:20 am
I found that a drywall saw was best for the coarse cuts and detail chisels like these: http://toolbug.co.uk/5pc-wood-turning-chisels-set-p-34.html for well, details. I used those tools to make this last year: http://picasaweb.google.ca/stanley.lui/Halloween2007#5158150577972455826
I tried the dremel, but wasn’t really happy with the results. The pulp just clogged up whatever bit I tried to use.
October 9th, 2008 at 3:09 am
I always wanted to try a sandblaster - mask out what I want to stay, and turn the rest into pulp!
October 9th, 2008 at 10:52 am
I’ve used a combination of one of those ‘pumpkin cutter’ saws, an Exacto knife set, and my Dremel to pretty good effect.
Last year’s work: http://s2.photobucket.com/albums/y16/CyberKender/?action=view¤t=Chernabog.jpg
The year before’s pumpkins: http://s2.photobucket.com/albums/y16/CyberKender/?action=view¤t=pumpkins.jpg