In this study, wood sawdust was esterified by solvent-free acylation with octanoyl chloride, lauroyl chloride, and palmitoyl chloride. After esterification, diffuse reflectance Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (DRIFT), X-ray diffraction (XRD), and thermogravimetric analysis (TGA) were used to evaluate the effects of carbon-chain length of reagents on the chemical and thermal properties of wood sawdust. Octanoylated wood sawdust had the excellent performance including the extent of esterification, and thermal stability. Increasing the chain length of fatty-acid chlorides not only decreases those properties mentioned above, but also decreases the accessibility of reagents. In addition, the lightness difference (△\L*) and hue difference (△H*) of esterified sawdust are enhanced by increasing the chain length of fatty acid chlorides.