I prefer tight grain hardwoods like Maple or Cherry. They are harder to cut than some of the other common hardwoods but the results are good. Poplar is a good "starter" wood for the scroll saw, softer than Maple or Cherry but harder than pine. Not as pretty IMO. Balck Walnut works well on the scroll saw if you can get it and like dark wood. Baltic Birch plywood is also used often for scroll sawing. I have fould that pine is not the best for scroll sawing small stuff, breaks too easily. It also depends on what you have available in your area. I'm from NY and harvest a lot of my own trees for lumber. Hopefully a forum member from your area will chime in.