Wood Yard Signs

Our lumber yard, has 1x6 1x8 mahogany - what is it?
Lowe's has the cherry, how is it to carve?

I did a bit of wood carving with chisels.

A grain of wood near the cotton wood like mahogany, basswood, linden wood carved well

Cherry carves well, but you must be careful about splitting

I would like to use pine because it is a soft wood. Those that you mentioned is a harder wood. Michael's
carries wooden planks, you can use. It is the Hobby Lobby.

poplar or pine always keep your hands away from the blade and cut with the grain, but any wood will work the ones you spoke of closer grain, then it is more difficult to carve, so they are prettier

To answer your question, it would need to know more about your intentions .... What is the size of the letters? Are they separate or attached with words? The painted, stained, or left in a natural wood finish? At one time, "sculpted" meant using a variety of hand-powered cutters, knives, scissors, etc. Today, we have access to a wide variety of power tools that do tremendous work in much less time and with much less effort. Hand tools limit you to perfectly clear, knot-free wood close-grained, while the methods of power you will use any available wood. (I prefer the methods of power, as a full-time professional sculptor, so that would be my recommendation.)