to chisel or not to chisel

Rhys laughs at me when I say my favorite job is chiseling. He thinks it's a sign I was meant for a life in the trades. Smoothing out the wood plugs that fill the lead holes is sensory satisfying. But I am back at work on my Mason-Hamlin after a week away, and it just wasn't the best candidate for plug filling. First of all, it has 6 or 7 holes in most of the keys, and they are placed close together. Second, the holes are pretty uniform, the lead was smaller and applied in such a manner that it all came out leaving the holes smooth. Drilling out the holes so they will fit the plugs we buy just seemed like taking away too much of the key when it didn't need to be removed. There are no smaller plugs commercially available and past attempts at making plugs were not successful. So I am left with the wood epoxy solution for filling. My technique is improving with practice, but using the epoxy adds angst to the process. The epoxy is two parts mixed together with a 15 minute window to use. And you must wear gloves which end up getting covered with crumbly bits which seem to be attracted to the ivory and ebony of the keys. The trick is to figure out how much to mix up for that 15 minutes window and to keep rags around to attempt to keep your fingers crumb free. I use razor blades like a putty knife to smooth the epoxy in the holes and if you are clever you can get everything smooth enough to avoid having to sand later. The whole process is just not as relaxing as the chisel slipping through the wood plugs. But since it's for my Mason-Hamlin I just have to let go of my desire to chisel.