New and Improved

They have changed my beloved Dap '33'.

For those of you unfamiliar with this substance, it is sort of like an oil-based Play Doh. It's used to hold the glass in windows and to keep water from getting between, well, anything and the wood.

The old Dap '33' came in a can:


The new Dap '33' comes in a plastic tub:


What's changed is the stickiness. In order for the product to work, it needs to be sticky enough to stick to the wood but not so sticky as to stick to your putty knife or glazing tool. The old version was perfect: straight out of the can, it wasn't all that sticky, but if you warmed it up (usually by letting the can sit in the sun) and then rubbed it in your hands to form it into a snake, it was ready to stick to anything. But after sitting on the glass for a few minutes while you placed all the putty, it cooled off and got less sticky. Then you could shape it and scrape off the excess. Not so any longer. Stickiness city. In the process of glazing 5 panes of glass today, I needed to repeatedly wash my hands (and my tools) with mineral spirits.