I've been doing some doweling and plugging today, and have discovered a couple of things. First, store-bought dowels are rarely sized accurately. Whether this is do to fluxuations in moisture content or milling I do not know. That said, the relative size discrepancy is significantly larger than it should be, IMO.
Because of the undersized dowels, I pulled out some tapered plugs that I had purchased from LV a while back. (Frankly, I'm amazed that I was able to find them, given the state of The Great Reorganization down there...) IAE, these go in nice and snugly with some glue and a tap from the hammer. However, they do sit proud of the surface and needed to be trimmed flush. I initially tried trimming them with a sharp (2k grit paper) chisel, but this actually ripped half of the plug out and tore the surround wood a little bit. (The plugs and surface are both hard maple.) Then I tried a low angle block and it worked excellently, albeit slowly. I probably tried to take too deep of a cut with the chisel. But it's worth noting that a tapered plug only has a very small ring of surface area in tight contact with the surrounding wood, so tread lightly.
Maybe it's time for one of those dowel plates that Mr. Lie-Nielsen makes. Seems like a lot of $$$ for such a simple tool though. Any comparable alternatives out there?
JP