If you are redoing it both sides and removing the glass, then I would say use silicone to bed the glass on not putty
general purpose silicone can be used for it, but bear in mind it is not paintable
a putty knife is not a lot of money TBH although any straight sided scraper would do the job
I suspect because you didnt use a putty knife you didnt put loads on and push it into the rebate and then tooled off -that process is what makes a seal
make the putty warm, roll into a sausage and press in or simply force it in using the heel of the hand
Why not recommend use a glazing grade MS polymer instead, which can be painted over?
Sorry, I am not intentionally being comabative. You are one of the regular contributors that I often agree with.
If the OP were to use a "glazing caulk", it would run slightly up under the edge of the glass as it is smoothed. I really don't understand the need to remove the glass and bed it in with the same product.
With regards to my previous post, when fitting double glazed units into timber frames, you do not "silicone" both sides.
If I have to do it both sides it would mean buying more than 1 tube of sealant for 4 sheets, making the job perhaps over costly for what it is worth. The strange thing is when I had pvc sheets just sitting on the frames with no sealant, the water didn't leak in. The reason I replaced them was because they started to look manky and yellowish as they got older.
Tiger sheds told me people have used this with success. It's also much cheaper than the other recommended here.
Everbuild General Purpose Silicone - White - 310ml, General Purpose Silicone is a mid modulus silicone sealant that adheres to most smooth and non-porous materials. Contains an anti-fungal compound to prevent mould growth in areas of high humidity. Forms a permanently flexible rubber seal.
pureadhesion.co.uk
You baulk at having to pay a fiver(?) for a tube of silicone, but spend 20 minutes posting your questions, which elicited about an hour in response time from the professionals that help out here?
Take the glass or not, you will need 2 to 3 tubes. I would recommend that you put your hand in your pockets and purchase some masking tape. After you remove the putty, run the tape around the glass, ideally you want the edge of tape to line up with the internal frame.
If you go for the cheaper silicone option, drop your "tool" in dilute washing up liquid. When I use the term "tool" I am referring to silicone profiling tools. However, that means that you have to spend £5-10 on the tools set.
If you go for MS ploymers, you will pay about £30, but after paying for the tape, you may be able to profile it without tools.
I apologise for being combative. You have, presumably come here looking for advice from professionals and at the twelfth hour suggested that you will discount the advice offered because you don't want have to spend sufficient money to rectify things.
I do not blame you for wanting to save money, but increasingly, it looks like you are a victim of refusing to spend money to do things properly.
I am going to bow out and I hope that you find a resolution.