How to Make Wood Putty From Glue & Sawdust

Put your sawdust to good use by creating a wood putty for shop use.

Wood putty has a variety of uses in the workshop and in the home, including filling in holes and repairing scratches in floors during a refinishing process. While many commercial brands of wood putty are available, you can make your own putty using sawdust and glue. The homemade putty is not only less expensive than the commercial brands, but uses up whatever sawdust you may have on hand, recycling material you would otherwise throw away.

Things You'll Need

• Sawdust
• Bowl
• Brush
• Cardboard, 5 inches square
• Hide glue
• Plastic stir stick
• Putty knife

Instructions

1. Gather about 1 cup’s worth of sawdust into a bowl using a brush. Sift through the dust, removing any solid pieces of wood or wood chips you may have brushed into the bowl with the sawdust.

2. Place about 1/2 cup of the sawdust onto the center of a 5-inch-by-5-inch piece of cardboard on a flat work surface.

3. Add hide glue to the pile of dust on the cardboard. Slowly pour on the glue, stirring it into the sawdust with a plastic stir stick. You’ll want to add enough glue to create a mixture that’s the same consistency as putty. For most glue, this should be about three parts by weight to the one part sawdust. The putty will be slightly dry, but still tacky to the touch.

4. Use as you would any other wood putty, filling gashes or holes in wood by pressing the mix into place with a putty knife and then allowing it to dry completely before applying any finish to the material.

Tips & Warnings

• For specialized use, create putty for hard-to-match wood colors by using sawdust from the type of wood you need to match.

References

• Old House Journal: The Facts on Fillers
• Fine Woodworking; Using Wood Putty; Chris Minick; December 1996