Putty in the hands of someone that doesn’t know what they are doing is a disaster. We are talking about wood putty not silly putty! Side note: I loved silly putty as a kid.

To begin with, stainable wood putty never stains the same as the wood it is on. I’ve never met a paint contractor that uses it. Professionals use tinted putty and most importantly never use it until the wood has been stained and has at least one coat of sealer on it.

Occasionally we have to use an artists brush and stain the putty a bit to help blend it to the wood and then we seal it.

These photos are from a residential job where a lot of money was spent on new trim. A “non professional” applied wood putty to the miter joints before we were on site. Long story short, it all had to be removed and replaced. Expensive mistake! We knew the putty would not look right but stained some of it to prove the point and show the homeowner the disaster that had befallen them. These were really bad miter joints too by the way.

The defense from the putty applicator was that “it says it’s stainable”. Stainable yes. Matching the wood stainable? No.