Great job on a first attempt. I played with the process on a small section of barrel a yr or so ago. Actually, I started playing with the process several yrs ago. Gave up after no advancement in a few days. Then after a couple yrs passing, tried again. My failures in the first attempts were due to an excessively strong FeCl solution. When I was finally to the point of claiming success, my process was very simple: rustblue several times (very forgiving in this area) including the boiling and carding, then a 10 sec dip in a 6 parts water to one part common circuitboard solution and wet carding with 000 steelwool. Repeat until happy with your results.
