Carving Styles
All nine carving styles explained — from simple sawing to sculpted portraits
Pumpkin carving books
Everything you need
to learn to carve
Step-by-step books covering every carving technique, tool, and style. Based on The Ultimate Book on Pumpkin Carving by Jeremy Burghall. New posts added regularly.
Who's Carving?
Best carving styles by age — from 5 to 12 and up
Tools & Safety
What you need, what to avoid, and how to carve safely
The Pumpkin
Choosing, preparing, and getting the most from your pumpkin
The Stencil
Finding, making, and fitting your stencil — including Pumpkin Studio
Carving
Step-by-step techniques for sawing, scraping, and sculpting
- Attaching the Stencil→
- Sharpie Trace Method→
- Pushpin Method→
- Other Transfer Methods→
- Cutting the Lid→
- Gutting→
- Sharpie Marking→
- Sawing Holes→
- Pulling Out the Pieces→
- Scrape Lines — With Wood Carving Tools→
- Scraping — With Wood Carving and Clay Tools→
- Sculpting — With Wood Carving and Clay Tools→
- Scrape Lines — With a Small Kitchen Knife→
- Scraping — With a Small Kitchen Knife→
- Sculpting — With a Small Kitchen Knife→
- Fixing Mistakes→
Extras
Roasting seeds, watermelon carving, and the full tools list
Want everything at once?
Get The Ultimate Book on Pumpkin Carving — free
All 64 chapters covering every technique on this page and more. Free to download. Works on iPhone, iPad, Android, and computer.