Snip: It takes an awful lot of wood flour
: to color that Durham's wood putty. It really wants to stay light. I'm
: afraid it will end up with not enough wood putty to hold it together. May
: break down and order some aniline dye or just go with dookie smutz.

Patsy,

I did some experiments with Durham's over the weekend. I agree that coloring the stuff with sawdust is not an option. It might make the texture a little nicer, but should not really be necessary. I found that the good folks at Lowes were able to crank out a little latex coloring into a one oz vial I brought in. They looked up cedar in their coloring computer and it spit out 3 or 4 colors. I ended up with about a tablespoon of goop in the bottom of the vial. I mixed them up with a little spatula and applied a couple drops of the stuff to a little batch of Durhams and filled several holes I had drilled in some wood strips. It was a little dark looking before drying but dried just about perfect.

Summary, see if you can get some free or maybe for a buck or two latex pigment used for latex paints. Try some experiments with it, both with a little sawdust and without.

Rick