News

Oct 19, 2023

The Best Pumpkin

The description of one of our competition picks has been updated to better

The description of one of our competition picks has been updated to better reflect its appropriate use.

Trying to carve a complicated design into a lumpy pumpkin can be a frightening experience. If you get the pumpkin-carving scaries, fear no more. The trick to creating a great jack-o’-lantern is really quite simple: You need the right pumpkin-carving tools, these tips, and a smidge of patience.

This durable stainless steel set includes everything you need to cut, scrape, and etch your way to the perfect jack-o’-lantern.

After extensive testing (aka dozens of evil eyes, toothy grins, and curious eyebrows), we found that the Messermeister 3-Piece Pumpkin Carving Set is our favorite pumpkin-carving tool kit. Made of durable stainless steel and ergonomic, soft-grip handles, it's pricier than the kits you find in the supermarket—but it's a worth-it investment for both beginners and experienced carvers. The Messermeister set includes the three tools you need for carving success: A spoon-like pumpkin scraper, a 3.5-inch sawtooth carver, and an etching tool for detail work. It's also dishwasher safe—a plus when it's cleanup time—and it's the only set we tested with a lifetime warranty. Though it doesn't come with its own storage case, that's not a dealbreaker.

Now that you’re armed with great tools, we have some advice on how to use them.

Most people start by cutting a hole in the top or the back of the pumpkin. Instead, use a sawtooth carving knife (included in the Messermeister 3-Piece Pumpkin Carving Set) to cut a hole in the bottom of your pumpkin. This gives you inside access without affecting where you put your design or having a cut line visible. Make the hole just large enough to comfortably fit your hand through (about 6 inches or so on a medium-size pumpkin) and set aside the cutout circle so you can replace it later. No matter where you make your hole, be careful not to put pressure on the stem while you’re scooping and never grab a pumpkin by the stem to move it. It pops off easily—especially on larger, heavier pumpkins—and leaving it intact adds mega personality to your design. A stem could be a witch's nose or a ponytail or the start of a mohawk. Should your family not get the bottom-hole memo, hot glue works wonders for reattaching stems quickly. (We’ve been there.)

Some dubious techniques increase your pumpkin's longevity (spraying it with bleach, giving it an ice bath, storing it in the refrigerator), but they can be dangerous to wildlife or just plain inconvenient. Making your jack-o’lantern last is simple: Grab a scraper (included in the Messermeister 3-Piece Pumpkin Carving Set) or a serrated spoon and scrape the inside of the pumpkin to remove all—and we mean all—of the seeds and pulp. This prevents moisture buildup, which leads to rot. Once you’ve evicted every last string and bit of pumpkin flesh, use the flat edge of your scraper to smooth the inside of the pumpkin. It helps to work around in a circle then change direction and pull the scraper or spoon toward you in sections to finish it off.

Selecting a design that's too complicated can leave you frustrated that your skills don't match your vision. For beginner carvers, templates are tempting, but they can be finicky and might not work well with your particular pumpkin. Flat paper plus round pumpkin plus tiny holes that blur together add up to an exercise in frustration. Instead, wipe down the outside of your pumpkin, pat it dry, then use a washable marker such as a Crayola Ultra-Clean Washable Marker to draw or trace a jack-o’-lantern face or Halloween design onto your pumpkin. A green or blue marker shows up best on an orange pumpkin and, unlike a permanent marker, makes it simple to adjust your design before you carve. If you want, say, a wider grin or meaner eyes, just use a damp paper towel to erase, then wipe the pumpkin dry and draw or trace again.

Etching removes just the skin of the pumpkin. It's often thought of as a final-detail step, which it can be, but if you use this technique to outline features before you make any complete cuts, it allows you to make adjustments (hey, mistakes happen) and adds noticeable dimension to your final design. The trick to nailing the etching technique is to glide an etching tool (included in the Messermeister 3-Piece Pumpkin Carving Set) over the pumpkin's skin while applying even pressure. Tilting your hand up or down as you go can cause the tool to get stuck in the skin, making uneven lines. It takes a little practice to get into a groove, but it's also really easy to go back and widen lines to make everything match once you do. For jack-o’-lanterns, try etching eyebrows, pupils, lashes, dimples, and more. For other designs, etching is a way to get color variation without having to carve all the way through your pumpkin. Once you try it, you’ll never carve another pumpkin without etching again.

With your design etched into your pumpkin, you can decide where you want the light to come through and focus your carving there. Using a sawtooth carving knife that can tackle twists and turns, carve along the inside of the etched line to keep the dimension. Should you want to make the eyes or mouth bigger, it's easiest to expand the etched area first then go back around with a sawtooth carving tool as needed. How you hold your carving knife affects your design, too. Move it in a straight back-and-forth motion to allow the maximum amount of light through later, or hold it at a slight angle to expose more of the pumpkin wall through your design. If you find the wall of the pumpkin appears too thick, use the same tool to cut the flesh in half or until it looks right.

After all that scooping, etching, and carving, you need to wipe your pumpkin down. Remember to dry it completely with a cloth or paper towel before you put it outdoors. You can even add a swipe of petroleum jelly to the carved edges to create a moisture barrier. Another way to make your pumpkin last longer is to keep it out of direct sunlight and off the wet ground. Hard, quick-drying surfaces like stoops and steps are ideal, but you can also place carved pumpkins on top of an upside-down planter or a larger uncarved pumpkin (stem removed as needed) to prevent moisture buildup. For the big reveal, pop any battery-operated tea light inside and let the light shine on your hard work handiwork.

If you can't find our pick: Consider the Pumpkin Masters Masters Collection Premium Stainless Steel Tools, which provide an excellent carving experience (unlike the plastic counterparts made by the same company). The blade of the Masters Collection carving knife is slightly thinner than the tools in the Competition section; as a result, less pulp is pulled through and the edges are smoother. It also comes with an etching tool, which we love. Although the spoon scoops well, the serrated top doesn't allow for a smooth inside.

If you want an even better etcher: Nothing compared to this Speedball Linoleum Cutter etching tool in our testing. It took an instructional video to get the attachment on correctly, but after that it was by far the smoothest to operate and comes with attachments of different widths, which is a plus. If you want to add a lot of detail to your pumpkin or already have a set that didn't come with an etching tool, it's well worth adding to your pumpkin-carving setup.

The plastic Pumpkin Masters All In One Pumpkin Carving Kit feels cheaply made, and we were concerned that the tools might snap under pressure. The flat-handle lid cutter is quite flexible, which actually made cutting a circle fairly easy, but the jumbo drill (quite tiny contrary to its name) and detail saw were not comfortable to hold nor did they feel like necessary tools. Perhaps most notable is that the spoon was the flimsiest we tested.

This two-piece Pumpkin Masters Lid Cutter Saw and Pumpkin Gutting Tool set is intriguing because of the unique, wand-like gutting tool, but it needs to be attached to a power drill. If power tools aren't in your comfort zone (or you don't have one charged and ready when you need it), a spoon works just as well. The lid-cutting tool has a different handle design but performed as well as ones in kits by the same brand.

It takes longer to install batteries (not included) in this Pumpkin Masters Power Saw with a teeny, tiny screwdriver (included) than it does to actually carve a hole in a pumpkin by hand with any of the sawtooth knives we tested. Save your money and your time.

Thanks to a flat edge on the top, the scraper in this Elmchee 13-piece pumpkin-carving tool kit made smoothing the inside of the pumpkin super simple. The knives were average, though the plastic handles were surprisingly comfortable, and the wood tools were well made, though unnecessary for the average carver.

This Comfymate 17 PCS Pumpkin Carving Kit also comes with a convenient storage case, but it includes battery-powered tea lights and a stencil book (if you’re into that) that drive up the price. The tools are made of metal with comfy rubber handles, but like the Elmchee, the kit has way more than you need to carve a cool pumpkin.

With the cordless, rechargeable Dremel Lite 7760 power tool, you can carve and etch the most precise detail in your pumpkin. That said, it takes time to set up and learn how to use the tool, so it's not recommended unless you’re a dedicated pumpkin carver who wants to further develop your etching technique, or you use it in the garage and want to take it for a spin on your pumpkins this Halloween.

The budget-friendly price of this plastic Target Hyde & Eek Pumpkin Carving Kit is nice, but it has noteworthy trade-offs. Though the tools feel sturdy, they are difficult to use. The extra-curved design of the plastic scooper makes it tough to remove all of the pulp and seeds, the stencil roller is hard to use with any precision, and the carving knife has wide teeth that leave cuts looking a little jagged.

This article was edited by Annemarie Conte.

Taryn Mohrman

Taryn Mohrman is a freelance writer who reports on holiday topics for Wirecutter. She's a former magazine director who has covered a range of lifestyle topics, including home design, cleaning and organizing, and parenting. She's also the person who's buying out the remaining stock of pumpkins in November for a Halloween story she's working on for next October.

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