Jarrah putty

[Stu]

I am making some shelves out of old jarrah flooring. Can anyone suggest a brand of putty that is close in colour to jarrah to fill the old nail holes???
I have a pile of sawdust from ripping the jarrah, could I make a mixture of pva glue and sawdust to fill the holes??? Thanks for your patience, is the first time I have worked with jarrah.
Cheers Stu

[Dion N]

Check out Timbecon's range of coloured fillers (Miro Wax-Putty)

http://www.timbecon.com.au/products/preparatory-fillers-sealers-391_0.aspx

[renomart]

PVA and Jarrah dust will do just fine. If you didn't have any Jarrah dust, you could use cinnamon or nutmeg (don't let the wife see you) mixed with PVA as well.

[Spelunx]

Hi Stu,

The best putty I have found is PVA glue and saw-dust.

If you don't have any Jarrah saw-dust, grab some off-cuts and a belt-sander, you will have plenty in no time.

Mix the two together, so that it forms a consistency that works for you, I find the firmer the better.

Work the putty into the holes, and let dry. Sand if needed...

The best bit is that it is free!

Cheers

Spelunx.

[zenwood]

Sawdust and PVA works, but can be a PITA to mix, store, get right consistency, etc. Another alternative is Intergrain 'Woodblend', which is pretty widely available (got mine at a local 'Banner'). Water-based, stores well, easy to apply. The pics are against a fairly brown jarrah, most jarrah is a bit redder than this, and would be a closer colour match.

[Skew ChiDAMN!!]

A few other ramblings on the subject...

Integrain putty makes a good base to start matching from but I've found it's rarely a "true" match. That's hardly surprising, as even the timbers from one tree exhibit colour variations, let alone from multiple trees so the putty is stained to an average colour.

It can easily be darkened with a few drops of liquid stain, but lightening it is another story... in a pinch I'll water it down a bit and add some sawdust from the particular board I'm filling. There are risks involved here though, such as watering down too much and the putty cracking when drying.

Personally, I use Woodmate's plain white putty and darken/colour that to need with either sawdust or, preferably, liquid stains. I'll only mix small batches (around 1tsp.) trying to match the lightest boards first, then progressively darken it as I use it.

The PVA/sawdust mix technique gives fair colour matching with minimum effort but has the downside that PVA doesn't take stain well and may finish differently to the rest of the piece. Depending on the type of finish used, of course. eg. I have trouble with PVA and Organoil, the puttied bits tend to stay matt and draw the eye just as much as if they were left uncoloured. :(