You will find that if the gourd has a lot of black mold on its exterior that it will be very easy to clean with light scrubbing.  If it has that nice, unblemished skin like the ones grown in the desert or on trellises it will be quite tough to clean.

For the tougher to clean gourds, I use a variety of soaking methods to soften up that tough, stuck on skin.   I prefer the first method, because you can get more gourds done this way with less space taken up,

1.  Wrap gourd in an absorbent cloth, wet, wrap in plastic grocery bag (aids in keeping cloth secure to gourd) and place in black garbage bag with other of the same.   Allow to soak for at least one day, occasionally check to see if skin is softening.  If you let the gourds soak too long they can absorb too much moisture and get mushy or crack.  Direct sunlight can also cause too much heat in bag, thus causing gourds to pop or crack.

2.  gourds can also be placed in a container that has a secure lid, like the big plastic tubs that are sold at Wal-Mart or Target or garbage cans that have locking lids.   Fill with gourds and water and secure top.  PLEASE BE CAREFUL with this method because gourds float and will jump out of the container with great force.  It is also quite difficult to get a lot of
gourds in one container because of the float factor!!!  This method is quicker to get started because you are not required to wrap each piece.

Once gourds are ready to be scrubbed, I prefer to use a copper or steel "curly wire" scrubber, they look alike, but the steel is a bit tougher.  I have only found the steel model at Stater Brothers Market.  If the weather is cold, I will clean the exterior in my kitchen sink with the disposal and H2O turned on frequently to flush away the skin.  Be careful not to scrub to hard, gourds will scratch!!!

After the exteriors have been scrubbed, I will allow gourds to air dry or if I am in a hurry, I will place gourds in oven on very low heat 225 degrees till fairly dry.   Gourds in the oven will sometimes secrete a sticky brown liquid, so you may want to place them on a baking sheet or foil.

Gourds can be cut open in a variety of different ways depending upon what I am working on.   You can use a serrated exacto knife to mincraft saw to jigsaw, etc...

To clean out the interior of a gourd, WEAR A VENTILATOR MASK WITH AN EXTREMELY FINE RATING and safety glasses.  The mask I wear can be worn during asbestos removal.

Some gourds have an interior that is already coming loose when you open it up, others can have a pearl like interior that can be very difficult to scrape out.  For the easy one's there are many different scraping tools to use!!!!!!!   for the tougher one's, I use my drill press with a flexible drive shaft attachment that is similar to the flexible arm used w/dremel's.  The drill press and drive shaft with wire wheel brush is much more heavy duty than the dremel and more than most people need.   but it sure does get them cleaned out fast, but you had better have strong hands to hold it steady.

After it's all cleaned out, I use sandpaper to smooth the cut and any other roughness that I find.