Traditional pumpkin carving is not for the faint of heart, nor those with no upper-body strength. There are sharp, jagged knives involved, and pumpkins are notably thick and heavy. Not to mention you have to dig all their gooey guts out. And while yes, it’s a fun, festive activity, it’s undeniably a time- and energy-consuming one you can easily finish with one fewer fingers than you started with.
Thanks to TikTok, however, there’s a new, still semi-dangerous way to carve your spooky lil pumpkins this Halloween that, according to one user, takes just 15 seconds.
Flat River Rustics, a company that makes custom woodworking and rustic home decor, posted a video to its TikTok page on October 3rd demonstrating how to quickly chisel a pumpkin with a power washer. The video has since racked up 3.4 million views and nearly 140,000 likes while inspiring other TikTok users to break out their pressure washers and film themselves blasting their own pumpkins.
“One day I got home from work and my wife wanted to carve some pumpkins, so naturally I wanted to see how it would work with the pressure washer,” Nick, the pumpkin-power-washing trendsetter who runs the @flatriverrustics TikTok account told Newsweek. “It turned out to work pretty decently. The video is actually from last year so I don’t have any pictures of the back, but it was still mostly intact.”
One concern viewers have about this unconventional pumpkin carving hack is how the back of the pumpkin appears after you power wash its front to smithereens. Jana Brown, another TikTok user who has posted videos pressure washing pumpkins, told Newsweek she makes sure the tip of the power washer is close to the pumpkin to avoid holes; however, Nick, the OG pumpkin power washer, surmised holding your pumpkin closer would “just blow through the back of the pumpkin.” (Though, who really cares about what the back of your pumpkin looks like anyway?)
Some users have also noted that pressure-washing your pumpkins gives them an even spookier appearance. The carved pumpkins’ eyes, mouths and noses ooze with water, looking as if they’re foaming at the mouth or they’ve just upchucked.
If you’re thinking of going this carving route this season, you should still be careful, since pressure washers are powerful tools that can cause serious damage if not used correctly.
“They’re actually a lot more dangerous than people think,” the trend’s creator told Newsweek. “With a commercial machine and the tip I used it can actually cut through skin.”
Now that’s spooky.
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