I’ve just started playing around with v carving and i’m already hooked, the effect is really cool. I’m currently using birch plywood and my results aren’t bad but I can’t help but feel there are likely better choices out there. Just curious what others use for things like signs, coaters etc. Thanks!
Plywood is cheap (relative to hardwood) but has many problems for vcarving. Plywood is made up of many layers. Most cabinet grade plywood has voids in the underlying layers. The face veneers look good but underneath not so good. You can use plywood with things like Baltic Birch but right now real Baltic Birch is hard to come by. Even with good quality Baltic Birch vcarving is not a strong point of that plywood.
Depending on how you want to finish your project with paint and so on there are many hardwoods that carve very well. Maple, Walnut, Poplar and more that have a flat smooth grain carve very well. However just carving these woods you dont get a lot of contrast and that is where paint comes in to make more contrast in your carving from the back ground. Even MDF can carve well if it is painted but if left unpainted looks pretty blah to me. A few more choices are solid PVC that a lot of sign makers use and you can buy at big box stores. There is solid PVC and Foam core PVC. The solid works well but the foam core is soft on the inside and does not work well for carving.
So to sum up it depends on what you want the project to look like in the end. Hardwoods that have inlays are also a good choice like using Walnut for the base and Maple for the inlay. Just plain vcarving in solid wood can be nice but will not have a lot of contrast and visual impact is important in making signs and art. For utilitarian objects the contrast is less important because they have a function and not so much as a visual art form.
To start out use Poplar to get your feet wet and is relatively inexpensive to experiment on. Pine is not a good choice because of the softness and grain structure but for practice it can good as well,. Oak can carve but is stringy and the grain is quite open and soaks up paint and can cause a distortion around letters you may not want. You can seal the wood to prevent this before applying paint.
One last thing to consider is your own allergic reactions to certain woods. Most domestic hardwoods do not cause allergic reactions but some people get allergic after repeated exposure. The exotic hardwoods cause allergic reactions to many people so be careful. Use dust collection and use a dust mask when dealing with tropical hardwoods. Prevention is a better strategy than getting allergic and then having to recover. Also make sure you dont take dust in to your living quarters and make your family have allergic reactions from clothing having dust and possibly spreading the dust around the house and in the laundry if you clothes are laundered with more sensitive family members.
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I’ll put in a vote for basswood for signs. Cuts like butter. Here’s one I did:
Here’s an old post of mine with more pics and process: VCarved Signs in basswood
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Steve is right about Bass Wood. I dont use Bass Wood much so I forgot about it. Bass Wood works well for items that will not get a lot of handling and wear. Bass Wood is quite soft and will not stand up to heavy use but works well for wall hangs and art pieces that will be looked at and not handled. The grain is tight and straight so it looks and carves well.
Thanks for such great info. If I can get my cut quality looking half as good as what you guys are doing, I’ll be thrilled 
I’ll have a look at trying to source some basswood and poplar, sound like that’s a good starting point. And to Julien, the detail you got with your design in bamboo is very impressive!
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