Putty for mahogany plywood

[Dave Higley]

I'm in the process of redecking my 42-year-old home-built sailboat, a 17-ft National One Design centerboard sloop. As before, I'm decking it with 1/4" mahogany (Sapele) marine plywood, to be finished bright. The boat has a rather small cockpit, so the deck has a lot of area. Instead of putting screws into each of the deck beams at intervals of 4" or so as I did before, I'm just going to screw the deck sections down along the center line and the deck edge, relying on West System epoxy to take care of the rest. Even so, I'll have a number of countersunk screws to putty over along the deck edge (those along the centerline will be covered by a kingplank), and I've always had trouble in the past finding a putty that will blend in and also stay put. I saw somewhere that Famowood is pretty good, but I'd like to get some advice from the Forum. Thanks -- DH

[Ron Williamson]

The easiest way to get the proper colour,is to do a coupla coats first,then do putty in a coupla holes,then coat it again.Only then,would I fill all the holes and recoat a bunch of times.
Putty in countersunk screw holes never looks great,BTW.
1/4" is a pain to countersink deep enough to hold a real plug,but places like Lee Valley have veneer thickness "plugs" that are used to fill shallow holes.Unfortunately,sapele may not be available,though cherry or walnut might look great.
R

[Bruce Hooke]

What about using narrow crown staples? That would leave you with much smaller holes to fill...

[JimConlin]

I'd also try just setting flathead bronze screws flush. With varnish over 'em,they might be no more obtrusive than bungs would be.
Paper-thin bungs are a potential maintenance problem.

[Victor]

I'm with Jim. They look nice and are also of course more accessible in the future. I've uncovered lots of puttied and bunged screws on my boat, and none of them have been recovered. The only place I use putty or a bung is on a dead hole, and I've pretty much given up trying to match the color. Minwax makes mahogany-colored putty which doesn't really blend but looks ok. Mixing dust with putty or eopxy didn't seem to work either, colorwise.

[WindHawk]

I suppose it's possible to match it somehow, but I've given up on putty entirely unless I want to use a contrasting color, or even paint. I do like the look of a bare bronze screw, and with 3 or 4 coats of epoxy underneath the varnish, wear & tear issues on the screw head are minimized.