: You've got tons of tearout because you're planing against the
: grain. You need to plane in the opposite direction whenever you
: get tearout. Make sure your plane is sharp as well.

: m

The dark color you see around the hole is wood filled epoxy, not tearout. I was trying to use wood filled epoxy to close the "slight" gap that seemed to be here, but I then realized that I had a micro-thin area, not just a gap that was opening up. Actually, there is very little tearout. The gap was cut cleanly (as if that was a consolation). I think I have a solution, though. I am going to create an inlay that will look like a "feature". Of course that means I will have to do it on both sides, but that gives me practice on creating this type of enhancement if I want to do it in the future. I have a photo showing what I have in mind for the shape. I will probably use a slightly contrasting wood color instead of black.