Reddit mentions of UKCOCO 10Pcs Disposable Plastic Surgical Scalpel Knife Multi-Function Scrapbooking Crafts Carving Knife Tools(SS-1)

Thank you! This is actually my first attempt at making a detailed jack o’ lantern, so I didn’t think to track my progress.
You can find the tutorial I followed for the stencil transfer and carving process here.

I also haphazardly (as in “scanned the images and read enough of description to know what each picture was and didn’t bother with steps 10-11”) followed this tutorial to create the stencil, but since Shemira is 2D, I really just added the frame, made the reference image greyscale, and added a white gap where Shemira’s horns exceeded the frame.

Some notes on the carving process:

• I used a surgical scalpel instead of an X-Acto knife
  
• If I were to do this again, I would invest in engraving tools, especially “digging” chisels typically used in wood or linoleum stamp carving to make shading easier. I used the scalpel for the majority of the finer details, and while it was great for outlining and refining edges, it wasn’t well suited for removing layers of pumpkin in small areas- like ears and fingers- or uniformly shaded areas like Shemira’s face.
  
  There are some pumpkin carving kits available online, but I’m a little skeptical of them, since many of the “fine” tools look like clay sculpting tools and those were too blunt to use effectively (I tried).