Pumpkin Carving Kit

When you see Halloween pumpkins on the telly they're usually sitting on the doorstep of some idyllic American home, hollowed out and carved to perfection. Sadly, if you're anything like us, your own annual effort probably ends up looking like the work of a four-year-old armed with a blunt spoon and a bad stencil of Janet Street Porter's upper bridgework.

But that's hardly surprising considering how well-versed our friends across the pond are at creating spectacularly spooky Jack O' Lantern pumpkins (no, we didn't know they were called that either). After all, the Americans make a much bigger deal out of Halloween than everyone else. And as we've now discovered, a great deal of them cheat! How? With the amazing Dremel Pumpkin Carving Kit.

Yes, fright-night fans, now you too can make spectacularly sculpted pumpkins without selling your soul to the devil or purchasing a possessed Freddy Krueger glove with this ingenious battery-operated tool. Fitted with a unique carving bit the Dremel can carve intricate designs in no time. All you have to do is hollow out your pumpkin, download the stencils from here, stick 'em on and get busy scoring away the outer skin with this dinky device. It's easier than tracing a picture.



But the Pumpkin Carving Kit is capable of so much more than bog-standard snaggle-toothed pumpkins. That's because this highly-accurate, twin-speed tool doesn't cut all the way through the pumpkin; it actually carves off layers of outer flesh to leave a gossamer-thin layer of skin that lets the candlelight glow through. The result is a gorgeously ghostly effect that will put your neighbours' efforts to shame. After a few practice runs carving formulaic faces you can download more templates and scare away evil spirits with anything from skulls and ghouls to spiders and goblins. Just make sure you know someone who likes pumpkin pie.

A couple of our recent efforts are hanging outside Castle Firebox as we write and we keep expecting Buffy to karate her way though the door, they really are that impressive. The Pumpkin Carving Kit is perfect for Halloween lovers everywhere. But hurry, the witching hour is almost upon us. Woo-oo-oo!