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By Joel Laneville

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Quick and Easy Halloween Pumpkin Carving Essentials

October 17, 2018 By Joel Leave a Comment

Carving our family pumpkin is one of the best parts of Halloween. It is something the whole family looks forward to, especially the kids. From the moment we buy a pumpkin, Jude asks when we’re going to carve it. He loves scooping out the seeds from the inside of the pumpkin. Over the years, we have tried different tools and techniques to make our pumpkin carving safe and unique.

Before you start carving your pumpkin this year, see how you can make your pumpkin carving experience efficient, safe, and fun.

scooping pumpkin seeds

Pumpkin carving patterns and tools

If you are like me, you grew up carving the same design in your pumpkin year after year. Our pumpkin always had the classic look: triangle eyes, triangle nose, and a mouth with jagged teeth.

When I was older, we bought the Halloween pumpkin carving kits that included a pattern book, poker, scraper, and mini saws to help us implement these designs. If you have ever implemented any of these designs yourself and have used the mini saws, you know how much of a difference they make. Instead of using a serrated knife from your kitchen, you can use the mini saw blades to much more easily cut through the pumpkin.

Let’s not forget about the the pumpkin scraper that comes in the set. This tool, by far, works better than any spoon I had used before. It is designed to comfortably place your fingers and thumb in such a way that you can easily scrape the inside of the pumpkin within minutes.

While I enjoy the patterns that come along with these kits, I don’t have the time to meticulously cut them out while keeping the interest of my kids. I have an hour, if I’m lucky, before my kids lose interest in the whole process. Because of this, I have opted for other ways to create fast and fun pumpkin carvings.

pumpkin carving tools

Power saw pumpkin carving tool

If you want to speed up the process significantly and save your hand from a lot of cutting, I would recommend getting a Power Saw – Pumpkin Carving Tool. It is like having a mini sawzall that will cut up a pumpkin in minutes.

I was skeptical at first of the power saw. Anna’s parents bought us one a couple of years ago. While I was grateful for the gift, I didn’t see the difference between the mini saws we already had and the power saw until we used it that year. This year for example, I was able to cut the top off of the pumpkin in under one minute. While I know it is not a race to cut a pumpkin, it is truly a game changer.

When ever I use the power saw, I always create a starting point by cutting into the pumpkin with a serrated knife and poke it all the way through the rhine. This gives me a perfect starting spot with my power saw. For those of you that have experience using pumpkin saws, you know that the blades are not strong enough to poke through the rhine itself.

If you are not using a mini saw or a power saw, I would recommend making the purchase. Growing up, my dad cut his hand while trying to carve a pumpkin and had to get stitches. That is definitely a party stopper for the night.

These mini saws and power saws are made especially for this reason and make the process much safer and faster than using a knife from the kitchen.

pumpkin power saw

Pumpkin teeth

Pumpkin dental implants. Enough said. I know this sounds crazy, but this addition of pumpkin teeth to our pumpkin carving has served two purposes:

  • Chops down (#punintended) on cutting time
  • Adds more character to your pumpkin

We purchased our Glow In The Dark Pumpkin Buck Teeth last year on a whim. When Anna and I saw them in the store, we both laughed and thought they would be great to use.

The set we bought comes with seven pieces that allow us us to mix and match as we see fit. The only thing we need to do is cut an area big enough to house the teeth that we want to use. Once the area is cut, we screw the teeth into the rhine of the pumpkin. That’s it.

This beats having to cut the teeth out by hand. We’ve all had to modify our pumpkin’s mouth when the knife we were using – before we had mini saws – would cut off more than we anticipated.

Halloween pumplin teeth

Battery operated flickering tea lights

Once our pumpkin was carved and ready for a candle, we used our battery operated flickering tea lights. These lights are great to use around kids. There is no worry of the pumpkin catching on fire or the kids getting burned.

With these tea lights, we just flip the switch on the bottom of the light and place it in the pumpkin. The flicker and glow look like a real candle. We can turn the candles on and let them run for the night without any worries. In years past, we have forgotten to turn the lights off before going to bed. If these were real candles, it could have been a potential disaster, but because they are battery powered, it was no big deal.

The end result

This year’s pumpkin was carved and completed within a half hour. With the tools above that we have accumulated over the years, we have been able to make the process fun and engaging for our kids while streamlining the process for Anna and me.

The nice thing about the tools is that you can reuse them from year-to-year.

finished Halloween pumpkin

Have you used any of the tools above? What tools do you use with your family to create your masterpieces? I’d love to hear about your pumpkin carving experiences in the comments below.

 

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Laneville family photo - Spring 2017

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