Whether you're a serious pumpkin carver or completely new to this, proper tools are required to efficiently carve beautiful masterpiece pumpkins. Pumpkin carving tools can be confusing though so we've brought you a guide to all the basic pumpkin carving tools that'll help you carve like a pro.
The Carving Knife
Every sensei needs a good knife. This is one of the most important tools so choose wisely. There are many different options of knives and it's usually a good idea to keep more than one as different kinds of knives can be used for different purposes. The first kind is a boning knife:
It is used to cut off the top of the pumpkin (to gut it and to put candles/lights in after.) and to cut off large parts. It can also be used to make medium cuts but it doesn't work well for fine design.
The second kind of knife is the paring knife:
Its blade is smaller than the boning knife's and can be used to make smaller cuts than the boning knife, though it can be used to carve the whole pumpkin if wanted.
The Dremel
The dremel is a drill-like tool that cuts the pumpkin easily and is able to make very small intricate designs. It can also be used to transfer designs on paper or other materials onto the pumpkin. It is not recommended for carving big parts as that would take a long time to do and can be more easily done with any kind of knife.
Other Cutting Tools
The pumpkin cutting saw is important for cutting fine designs. It can be used to carve the whole pumpkin as well.
The poker tool is a very effective tool for moving pumpkin designs onto the actual pumpkin. It is not as good for actually carving the pumpkin, however, as it doesn't have a blade, only a small point as shown by the picture below.
The Gutter
Gutting tools are used to remove the seeds and goop from inside the pumpkin, for those who would prefer not to use their hands. It isn't necessary though as taking the pulp out with your bare hands isn't that bad and hey, for some people it's actually a lot of fun! Another one of its features is that it can thin the walls of your pumpkin which can really come in handy.
Those are the basic pumpkin carving tools. There are many many more and different kinds of each and of course, different brands of each and we'll be getting in depth with reviews of products in another post, another day.
For those who aren't that serious about pumpkin carving but are still interested in carving a great pumpkin, there are pumpkin carving kits with multiple different tools in them and they're actually quite cheap. The tools won't be as good as if you bought them all separately but it's great for people who don't want to spend a lot of time and money on buying tools, not that the pumpkin carving tools cost that much.
We'll also be recommending/reviewing different pumpkin carving kits in a later post as there are hundreds of them around and to be honest, a lot of them aren't that great.
More Halloween ideas will be coming up soon.
Carve away everyone!
