Best wood for v carving?

[conceptmachine]

what would be the best wood to use for v-carving?I picked up a piece of 12x24 oak at lowes,it carved ok but left some fuzz in areas that were carved parallel to the grain.I may get an order for 25 of these so i would like to avoid sanding if possible since the carving is very detailed.
shawn

[rcnewcomb]

Bloodwood
Hard Maple
Sapele
Mahogany
Cherry
Basswood

[donchapman]

For me, there's not a single best wood for v-carving since it depends on the use of the piece, e.g dark/light, interior/exterior, type finish, cost, etc.
I've v-carved several signs using Ipe which is extremely hard/dense/heavy but v-carves very nicely with sharp bits and works well as an exterior sign. V-carve slightly too deep, prime and paint the letters and sand or plane the excess paint/wood to leave clean, crisp outlines.
Use a stain-blocking primer or the oils from the Ipe will bleed through and ruin your paint. Ipe is abrasive and eats up bits, too. Leave the brown background natural to weather grey or oil it with somthing like Watco exterior penetrating oil, which you'll have to reapply periodically. Spar varnish or polyurethane finishes will break down over time exposed to the sun and have to be sanded and redone about once a year. That's why I prefer leaving it unfinished or oiled. Here's a small unfinished Ipe sign soon after being made. The background turned grey after a few weeks but the contrast with the lettering is still good. I pocket-screwed the two boards together.

18358.jpg

[paul_z]

Shawn,

Check your bit. I v carve a lot of oak and the usual cause of fuzzies is a bit going dull. Most V bits can be tuned up with a diamond hone.

Paul Z

[Brady Watson]

Don,
The font looks great!

Those getting started in v-carving, take note. See how the 'Jones' script pops out at you? It is hard to tell if it is prismatic (positive) or incised (carved in)...This is the effect that you are after with v-carving.

-B

[oscarg1971]

I have found that white oak leaves more fuzzies that red oak. On white, even with a new bit, will leave fuzzies all the time. I usually go over it twice and that seems to help. -Oscar

[conceptmachine]

Thanks for the info guys,im going to try a another type of wood,i have a sharp bit so im ruling that out,and i dont think my client would be willing to pay if i had to run 2 passes(i already have my prt maxed out on move speed).
shawn

[donchapman]

Thanks, Brady.
The font is called Antiqua Bold in my LetterArts9 signmaking software out of Corona, CA. It probably has different names as sold by others. Since I hand v-carved hundreds of signs before I ever bought my ShopBot, I pay a lot of attention to which fonts will v-carve rout better and many of those inlude elements like serifs that were in the letters hand carved in stone by ancient Romans. I've been to Italy a few times and have looked at a lot of those old letterings and they vary in quality from excellent to poor. That's why when someone tells me "They just don't make 'em like that anymore" my response is, "You're right, we often do it much better."