Thank. Since I missed the oil curing step, I'm stripping the lacquer and rusting some more.

What I was saying earlier, about how the darkening effect of the lacquer is difficult to gauge: I went back and etched again before the photo above because of that. Even wetting the surface doesn't fully show what the lacquer will do to the depth.

Closing in on the process I think. Back shortly with another progress report (image).