Halloween party at the Bethaus smithy-how to carve a pumpkin

 Now as I find, there are better ways to spend Samhain than working, but worser ones, too.

 Visiting silly Halloween parties might qualify:-), but those little edged tools with the fancy damascus blades want to be financed;-). So, it was pumpkin carving, and no harm done at all:-). Were not so many ones, just 15 pieces;-). And, since this is funny and a good practice for woodworking, I thought I´d tell you how I do this. There might be other ways to carve a pumpkin, but this is mine, and works for me.

 Start by carving out the lid. pierce the pumkin at an angle for the lid to fit later on.

 Remove the seeds and the other stuff from the lid. By the way, I LOVE that Mora (when knives are concerned, that is, on other occasions I love someone else;-D, you know who you are!:-)). Knife´s a Mora laminate blade, 80 mm long, nice, handy and thin and cuts like a razor.

 Brought out the Fimbulmyrk carver:-) and hollowed out the fruit. The less meat is left in, the longer the pumpkin will keep. You can hollow it out until there´s just 5 mm left. Then salt the innards liberally. When it has dried a bit, fill with fine sand and let dry thoroughly. This way you can even make a container for food!

 I started to carve immediately, but no harm done. Sart with the corner of the eye, cut the topmost part, carve the lower part of the eye and connect those two parts.

 Second eye done the same way. If you want to be very precise, you can mark the height with a ball pen or even some Gaffa!

 From the middle axis between the eyes you can carve two almond-shaped nose slits. I like to carve two nose slits, looks all the more "frightening", boooooo:-). Reminds me of Iron Maiden´s mascot, "Eddie"...somewhat, that is...;-)

 Start the mouth by piercing at an angle. I always start from the middle line axis, then carve to both sides. Then I carve the lower teeth the same way.

 Finished project.

 This is Sylvia contemplating: "To serve that lunatic a coffee or not to serve that lunatic one more coffee, for he´s off his rocker enough already;-)". Kidding aside, Sylvia is the waitress of our licce commune and certainly works like an animal. Respect for the job she does!

 The kids havin´fun with knives. We had to use but one plaster. So much for teaching kids how to carve is irresponsible (heard that argument some years ago when I worked for a school). NOT teaching kids how to carve is irresponsible if you ask me. They all had fun, did something sensible with their spare time apart from blackmailing or bullying or drinking alcohol until flat-line beeping out their minds. Even the little ones did extremely well, did not hurt themselves nor anyone else.

 Of course, there were parents helping some, and I stood on guard whenever a kid needed my assistance. It was a bit stressy, of course, but well worth the effort.

 This is one of our blacksmithing groupies. She always drops by when there´s something going on at the smithy. She knows how to forge, how to carve, how to start a fire, how to do potato printing, carving stone and much more. Where´s the morale:-)?

 ....

 ....

 When there were no pumpkins left anymore, I went downstairs to help Volker out a bit, forging and filing with the kids.

 ...and getting a fire started for a light in the darkness..

 Volker forging a luck charm horseshoe...

Then it was a torch procession and a fairy tale lecture, and they were off into the dark of the Muttental, where there was Gellda-Maros (Goldemar) waiting for them....:-) Who is Gellda-Maros?

This, my dear friends, is another story and shall be told on another reading...;-)

Anyway, it was a good day, and helped me avoid the Halloween mania.