Hardening nail hole fillers

[Dan Friedrichs]

Is there a good option for hardening nail hole filler? Seems like the vast majority of products are non-hardening.

Specifically, I used some standard "putty" (non-hardening) on face nailed pieces of hardwood flooring (at ends, stairs, etc, where the tongue couldn't be nailed) and have noticed that it's gotten dirty and partially wiped out of the holes from foot traffic, mopping, etc. I'd like to clean those holes out and replace the putty with something that will harden, but am struggling to find a good product for this.

[Jamie Buxton]

Yeah, "putty" means non-hardening stuff. "Wood filler" means hardening stuff.
When I need wood filler, I make color-matched filler with sanding dust from the board I'm filling, and five-minute epoxy. Some folks use shellac, but that takes longer to cure solid.

[Lee Schierer]

I've used MinWax Stainable wood filler. You can use your stain to color it and it dries hard.
wood.jpeg
I quit using those colored crayons called wood putty years ago for the exact reasons you cited.

[Jim Matthews]

Durham's "Rock hard" water putty works.

It takes paint well, too.

http://www.waterputty.com/

[Mark Gibney]

Take a look at SculpWood Paste - the natural color is generic tan wood, and you can color it.
The open time is at least 30 minutes, hardens overnight, and sands easily.

By the way, one carton lasts me a long time, and I use it to fill voids in slabs and such, so it's pretty good value I think.

[Dan Friedrichs]

Hmmm... I've used Durham's and the Minwax "wood filler", before, but those don't seem to be quite the right product - they seem like they're for filling big cracks that will be sanded/painted, rather than just nail holes. I guess I'm wondering if there are hardening fillers that are sold pre-tinted (similar to putties) intended for nail filling in finish work.

[Von Bickley]

I recently used some Timber Mate that I bought from Amazon. It set up hard and took stain.