With Halloween on the way, it’s an opportunity for many woodworkers to add their own special touch to the annual chore of carving the pumpkin.

I’ve been there, done that. Forget about the cute little tools they sell in the grocery store to carve pumpkins. I’ve got a whole shop of power tools that should make quick work of the job. My favorite is the cordless reciprocating saw. That makes the process efficient, and it is plenty accurate for pumpkin work.

But other woodworkers have other ideas. 

Caleb Mean of the popular YouTube woodworking channel Mean’s Woodshop posted a satirical video showing how woodworkers typically over-complicate any project, including carving a jack-o’-lantern. 

Some folks go in great detail to turn their pumpkins into a work of art. Others are more interested in speed and efficiency.

Flat River Rustics, a woodworking shop in Lowell, Michigan, has taken efficiency to the extreme and garnered more than 3.5 million views on TikTok by showing how to carve a pumpkin in just 15 seconds with a pressure washer. If you try to do this at home, be warned that pressure washers can be dangerous, and you could blow out the back of your pumpkin while carving the front. See the video below to watch how the Flat River Rustics folks do it.

Do you have special woodworking techniques for pumpkin carving? Share them with us!