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Besides wearing ghostly costumes, carving pumpkins is also a symbolic activity of Halloween. It involves cutting various spooky designs on a pumpkin and putting a glowing candle inside to make a pumpkin lantern, otherwise known as the Jack O’Lantern. One secret to making the best pumpkin carvings is to have the appropriate tools for the job. In this article, I will share with you 6 useful pumpkin carving tools that will make your Halloween and Thanksgiving Day experience with pumpkins the best.
#1.Cordless drill
A cordless drill is a battery-powered drill. It is used with drill bits or hole saws to drill holes on surfaces.
You can use it with holesaws as a pumpkin carving tool to make holes into pumpkins.
Sometimes, you can attach an electric mixer beater to the drill and use it to remove the contents of the pumpkin easily. This method of removing pumpkin contents is quicker and more effective quicker than scraping with a scooper.
A mixer beater cleans the inside of a pumpkin very fast.
You can also use a drill to drive screws for hanging your scary Halloween-themed art.
The reason why a cordless drill is better than a corded drill is its versatility and mobility. You can take a battery-powered drill anywhere so long as the battery is charged. You do not need to plug the tool into a wall outlet to use it. In other words, there is no limit to where you can hang your eerie Halloween-themed scarecrows and other art when you have a cordless drill.
#2.Holesaw kit
As I have mentioned above, hole saws are important for making large holes. You can use them together with a drill to gouge out round shapes into the pumpkin. A hole saw kit has hole saws of different sizes, giving you the freedom to select the size that meets your design need.
You can also use hole saws to make holes in hard surfaces such as a Halloween skull. When used together with a drill, a hole saw makes the process of digging out circular shapes easy and fast.
#3.Hammer
A hammer is a simple hand tool for driving nails into materials or delivering impact to a small area. If you are into string art, you can use a hammer to drive tack nails into the pumpkin before looping the string around each one of them. You can make just about any spooky design on a pumpkin using string art. You will also find tack nails particularly good for this kind of art because they are sharp enough to pierce the skin of the pumpkin. They are also short enough and have a flat head that will retain the string.
Alternatively, you can use a hammer to drive a cookie cutter into the pumpkin to make custom shapes. A cookie-cutter set allows you to make just about any decorative shape. Normally, these devices are used for cutting cookie dough into different shapes but you can use them to make custom spooky shapes on pumpkins during Halloween.
The metallic cookie cutter is the best for cutting shapes on pumpkins because the surface is quite hard. All you need to do is gently hit the metallic device into the pumpkin to make your desired shape. A cookie-cutter and a hammer are the perfect pair of pumpkin carving tools for a person who wants to add more creativity to Halloween designs.
#4. Rotary tool kit
A rotary tool kit or dremel is a toolset for making intricate designs on surfaces. It contains a range of accessories including tiny cutting and grinding disks for carving and engraving patterns. You can use the tool kit to transfer intricate Halloween-themed patterns on a pumpkin so that you can showcase your creativity.
For instance, you can use a stencil or template of the grim-ripper with a marker pen to transfer the design onto the pumpkin. Then, using the Dremel or any other rotary tool, you can engrave the pattern into the pumpkin. Afterward, you can place the lighting candle inside the sculptured pumpkin to bring out the spooky design in the dark.
#5.Drywall saw
A drywall saw or a jab saw is a tool similar to a utility knife but with a serrated cutting edge and a sharp tip. The tip punctures surfaces very easily and the sawlike edge cuts through materials with so much easy. The most modern jab saws have rubber to provide a comfortable tight grip.
Typically, a drywall saw is meant for making cuts in various building materials such as drywall, gypsum core, and plasterboards. However, during Halloween, you can use this tool to puncture through pumpkins and cut various shapes.
A jab saw cuts very easily with minimal effort as compared to a utility knife and does not require sharpening. If you do not have a cookie cutter for making custom shapes, a keyhole saw or a drywall saw can do the job for you. It is one of the most common pumpkin carving tools a lot of people use to cut different curves into pumpkin during Halloween.
#6.Scroll saw
This is a bonus tool for making Halloween and Christmas season so much fun. Although you cannot use it to cut through pumpkins, you can make templates and stencil with it.
A scroll saw is an electric or pedal-operated saw that uses a very thin saw to make intricate curves into materials. You can use it to cut wood, thin metal, plastic, and other materials. You can make horror stencils with a scroll saw and then transfer the design onto a pumpkin using a Dremel kit. Moreover, you can make fancy and delicate ornaments for Christmas with a scroll saw.
The main reason I added the scroll saw to this list is for you to find something safe for kids to use and have fun with. A scroll saw is safe and very easy for kids to use. Your kids are not only going to love the designs they make out of this tool but you could also kickstart them into woodworking unknowingly.
A scrollsaw is not only a great tool for making templates for pumpkin carvings during Halloween but also one of the best tools for creating ornamental designs for professionals, hobbyists, and kids.
