My Top 5 Favorite Carving Woods 

Very cool! The Mora is probably my favorite all around knife. Thank you for your kind remarks and best wishes as you begin your whittling and woodcarving journey.

I do use cabinet scrapers from time to time mostly on flat surfaces though. The undulations of carved surfaces makes them impractical to use in most cases. Great idea though especially when a final cleanup pass is needed most. As in a carved handrail up-easing situation.

It all depends on where it is to be used and if it’s painted or not. Basswood is the most versatile wood in my opinion especially if it’s to be painted. That said, I would not chose it for an exterior application . It’s a tight race for first place but there are other factors besides workability such as smell, natural color and certain other tactile qualities.

Walnut and Sycamore are nice to carve. My experience with Mulberry is it’s quite hard to work and rather abrasive on edge tools.

I’m not familiar with that species of pine. I would say almost any wood is worth a try.

Aspen is similar to basswood in color and texture. My problem with it is that grain is more stringy and working with it usually involves making repeated or deeper stop cuts than the other woods. Traversing the grain is harder and it tends to fuzz up with sanding. Aspen dust is among those woods that are respiratory irritants to me.