Hi,

For the soft wood types if you can achieve high feed rates then High Speed Steel O Flute Straight Router Bits are great. They combine an open flute design with single flute geometry to provide optimum chip removal. Also great for hand fed operations.

For hard wood High speed steel V Flute Straight Router Bits can be good if you need to a smooth finish with a balanced tool.

However there are also some great tools for both soft wood and hard wood such as upcut or downcut double flute high speed steel router bits for excellent finish over single flute. Use downcut if you want to protect the finish on the top of the workpiece however downcut if not. You can move onto Carbide if you need longer tool life or rigidity.

If you need help finding these Pete just send me a direct message and I will be happy to help!