How to Make and Use Homemade Wood Filler

Make the Sawdust

Sand a piece of sample wood that matches the project material. A sander with a collection bag makes it easy to collect the sawdust. Or you can file, rasp, or sand by hand if you don't have a power sander. Cutting wood on an electric miter saw is another way to create sawdust without wasting wood.

Gather the Sawdust

Gather a pile of sawdust onto a piece of cardboard or scrap wood. Sift through the sawdust and remove any large particles, wood or metal shavings, or other impurities. Run a magnet through the sawdust to pick up ferrous metal. Wrap the magnet in plastic, then discard the plastic to separate the shards from the magnet. Other items will need to be identified by sight and removed individually.

Mix the Wood Filler

Gather the cleaned sawdust into a small pile or in a paper cup. Add wood glue and stir with a craft stick, adding more glue until the mixture is a thick putty, roughly the texture of cookie dough. Avoid adding so much glue that the mixture becomes runny. Wood glue hardens relatively quickly, so don't take your time—you have about 10 minutes of total working time to prepare and apply the filler.

Form the mixture into a workable dough that you can roll between your fingers. If the dough has already begun to stiffen, it will be difficult to apply to the work material. If this happens, start with a new batch and slightly increase the amount of wood glue in the mixture. Once the proper texture is achieved, move immediately to the application of the filler to the work material.

Apply the Wood Filler

Push the putty by hand into the gouge, scratch, or hole in the work material, then remove the excess by hand. Working quickly, use a putty knife to flatten the wood filler and scrape away the excess. Let the filler dry completely.

Wash the Putty Knife

Wash off the putty knife right away with warm water and soap. The filler is difficult to remove from tools once it dries. Discard unused wood filler. Stored wood filler will harden and cannot be saved.

Finish the Project

Sand the filled area very lightly with a fine-grit sandpaper. It takes little effort to sand the area smooth. Avoid over-sanding, which will gouge the patch. Avoid sanding far beyond the patch area as this may embed sawdust in the rest of the wood. Wipe the area clean with a tack cloth.

Complete the Color Match With a Wax Stick

Crayon-like wax sticks in various colors help you touch up the wood putty after it has dried if it doesn't completely match the surrounding wood. Lightly draw over the touch-up with the wax stick, adding other colors as needed. Smear the colors with your thumb to mix them and to soften the effect.