Materials

• To carve a wooden sign you will need a chisel, gouge, V-tool, jigsaw and sandpaper. You also need some type of pole or other device to hold up your sign unless you intend to hang it from the wall with a nail. First, you have to pick the kind of wood to use for your sign. Selecting a wood that is soft rather than hard will make the job much simpler. Oak or timber are both relatively soft woods that are easier for a novice wood carver to work with.
  
  

Drawing Your Pattern

• Before actually carving, you need to ensure the piece of wood you are carving on is an appropriate size or shape. The sign can be oval, rectangular, square or any other desired shape. Use a jigsaw to cut the wood into the appropriate shape. The next important step is to draw out the pattern for the information that you intend to carve into the wood. Use a pencil to draw the pattern. Stencil cutting is also a good idea, as using stencils can help you to space your letters evenly and ensure your letters look right.
  
  

Carving

• Once you have the pattern drawn on, it's time to do the actual carving. Using the V tool, carefully carve along the pattern that you wrote as if you were cutting using an X-acto knife. Once you have carved the initial pattern letters using the V tool, use the gouge or the chisel along the carved lines to get the appropriate depth for the carving. Once the carvings are deep enough, use sandpaper to smooth the wood. The sign can then be painted or hung.