For the love of your preferred diety, Richlacal, don't put mashed potatoes in a wound. Or pepper. Or really any other granulated substance. That takes forever to get out, doesn't really help anyway, and isn't sterile in the first place.

NJS makes some good points - very succinct description of the various methods to close wounds. But like others have said, should you close a wound???

Routinely I leave wounds open/packed, with daily dressing changes. Some wounds just aren't amenable to "closing 'er up!" Closing these types of wound essentially leave a festering pocket for bacteria to hang out and systemic infection to start. Do you know how to debride a wound, what antibiotics you'll be needing to give if it's relatively deep, what to do if it's a stick versus an animal bite versus a fishing hook? Even if you successfully close your wound, enjoy your tetanus 2 weeks later, or your sepsis since you treated yourself with the wrong antibiotic.

And like NJS said, how deep is it? It's not uncommon to use 2 layers of sutures, or even 3 or more. Do you have the equipment, skill, pain meds and sterility to be digging wrist deep as you repair muscle, tendons, fascia and skin? Do you know which sutures are absorbable, which will cause a wicked reaction by the body, which ones will cause pain as you heal? Even leaving aside the cosmetic aspect, if you're even contemplating needing a second layer of sutures, you're so much better off either A) waiting for real medical help, or B) packing the wound and letting it heal itself.

Wound care isn't just being a seamstress - there's a lot of factors to take into consideration, and a lot of practice needed to get it right. That's why there's Wound Care Centers, innumerous bandage types, lots of different manufacturers of equipment, etc etc etc. You wouldn't make an industry out of something if some thread and a needle would handle the problem.