During the Halloween holiday season, you can find a large number of pumpkin carving kits and tools available in stores and online. But my recent purchase of the Dremel Pumpkin Carving Kit and my subsequent tryout of the product has led me to believe that it is the best pumpkin carving kit currently on the market.
I am far from an expert at carving pumpkins, and until using the Dremel Pumpkin Carving Kit, I had made do with the basic cheap tools usually found for about $5 in a pharmacy or supermarket. They worked, but for a novice like myself, they can take a little getting used to and the obvious lack of quality made for a few broken tools or badly uneven carvings.
But the Dremel Pumpkin Carving Kit is the perfect item for novices or professional pumpkin carvers, as the product is nicely compact, easy to use, and relatively inexpensive. Most retail stores carry the Dremel Pumpkin Carving Kit for about $25-30, but I found it online at Amazon.com for only $18.99. You may still think this a bit too pricey if you don’t plan on carving pumpkins that often, but trust me, it’s a worthy investment, and the ease of use will have you carving pumpkins each Halloween year after year.
It should be noted that the Dremel Pumpkin Carving Kit is better suited for adults and not children, as the spinning cutter blades and other tools can easily injure a child who is not careful. The kit itself is very compact and sleek, designed in appropriate orange and black colors to compliment Halloween.
Pros of the Dremel Pumpkin Carving Kit
The 6-volt tool runs on 4 AA batteries, and is capable of operating at two speeds; 6,000RPM and 12,000RPM, It is packaged with an 1/8″ diameter high-speed cutter. This cutter and the Dremel Pumpkin Carving Kit differs from typical pumpkin carving tools in that it is designed not to cut all the way through the pumpkin, but rather to strip away layers of pumpkin flesh in order to allow varying degrees of light to shine through the pumpkin, creating a more beautiful presentation and a professional look. A wrench is also included.
The Dremel Pumpkin Carving Kit also comes with an assortment of 10 pumpkin carving patterns and templates, and detailed instructions which I found very useful. I had never attempted to carve a pumpkin in the way the Dremel Pumpkin Carving Kit described, but after only a few minutes, I found that the tool did most of the work easily and efficiently. I used a basic scary Jack O’ Lantern design to start, and within about an hour, I had produced what I have to say was quite an exquisitely carved pumpkin.
Cons of the Dremel Pumpkin Carving Kit
I found that using the lower speed on the Dremel Pumpkin Carving Kit worked best, as the higher speed was too fast for a soft pumpkin, and mainly only succeeded in turning some areas of pumpkin to mush. Luckily, I was able to stop and revert back to the lower speed before the pumpkin was beyond salvaging.
Additionally, this is not a tool for very fine detail work. This won’t bother you if you are not a professional pumpkin carver, but otherwise you’ll still want to invest in a set of standard pumpkin carving tools. Of course, if you’re a professional, you likely already have a set. It would have been nice if other tools or attachments were included with the Dremel Pumpkin Carving Kit, since I don’t really consider a cutting blade and a wrench a complete kit.
If you purchase the Dremel Pumpkin Carving Kit but wish to look for a different pumpkin carving pattern to try other than what is included, then you can follow this link to find a detailed listing of several websites offering free pumpkin carving patterns and stencils.
Additional, you’ll want to read about How to Preserve a Carved Pumpkin to make it last longer during the Halloween season.
You can also visit the Everything Pumpkin online store to purchase the Dremel Pumpkin Carving Kit and other great pumpkin items and gifts.
