You have all seen the raggedy Punkins in your neighborhood … those Punkins were carved by those one knife people.
See the picture in the article. It has all the tools you need. You have 60% of them in your house. The rest can be purchased VERY cheaply at a Tar-Mart or a Wal-get in a Punkin’ Carving kit. They don’t pay me to advertise…so I don’t…but I want you folks to find the right tools. You even see these Punkin’ Carving kits at Grocery Stores with the other tools. Most of the time they are bright orange tools for Halloween. I have several sets…I took pictures of my Blue Set. Cool thing is you buy that set of TOOLS for $3 – $4 and you have 8-10 more stencils…BUT again you have the CORRECT TOOLS, CHEAP, FOREVER!!!!!
You will be getting the instructions with your carving kit. I am going to give some “Rope A Dope” basics.
1. Pick a Punkin’ with a Flat Side…Yes FLAT!! You DON’T WANT THAT PERFECT ROUND PUNKIN’ FOR CARVING!!! See, you already learned something….
2. Remove the top of your Punkin’ & gut him. It is easiest to start the hole with a straight knife BUT Serrated Knives are made for jobs like this once the hole is started. It’s all about picking the right tool for the job. The serrated knife will do the work nice and cleanly so you don’t get tired and can focus on the curve of the cut.
3. Spend some time scraping the inside wall away on the flat side to thin it down. This will make it easier to carve AND make it more luminous.
4. Cut your Candidate out of the News Paper or if you are getting it off the Internet, print your Candidate out on normal paper.
5. Trim the corners of the paper some so the paper is somewhat round or oval.
6. Tape the picture to the FLATTEST side of your PUNKIN’. It is important to get the flattest side to not distort your picture
7. Now carefully punch holes thru the PAPER & THE SKIN of the Punkin’. You are punching around the edges of the BLACK AREAS. These are the parts that you are going to remove from the face of the Punkin’. There are 2 tools that you can use for this …a single punch for detail areas OR the spiked roller for larger sections with straight lines or smooth easy curves that you can roll along. YOU ARE NOT PUNCHING THROUGH THE MEAT OF THE PUNKIN’.
8. When the punching is ALL done, remove the paper.
9. In case it wasn’t obvious to anyone…we are removing the sections that were black on the paper.
10. Now take the Single Punch Tool, carefully & slowly punch one of the holes ALL THE WAY THRU the skin and meat of the Punkin’. You need to repeat this in EACH of the sections to be removed from the Punkin’.
11. Then take the thin serrated knife from the Punkin’ Carving kit & put it in the hole you punched all the way thru. Start carefully sawing from hole to hole with the holes you punched in the skin of the Punkin’ in #7. Just remember let the knife do the work! Saw carefully and apply some pressure in the direction you want to go. Don’t go too fast so you tear the skin of the Punkin’ or get off course from your “poked hole map”
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Ok Y’all … only hard part left is picking YOUR candidate.
Snellville we want to see your support for your Candidate on your porch!
Happy Carving & Happy Halloween!!
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