Morning.

I have some steel I'm trying to blacken, but I'm finding two results, neither of which are what I wanted. Let me walk you through what I'm doing and maybe you can help me:

1) Clean the metal till it passes a water drop test.
2) Apply chemical blackening gel.
3) Wait.
4) Clean off gel with a water and baking soda mix to stop the reaction.
5) Go to step 1 until a nice, even black appears.
6) Clean the metal with the baking soda and water mix.
7) Clean that off.
8) Leave overnight to make sure it doesn't rust up.

The next morning, if it's still looking nice and black and everything is clean, I'll rub on some ballistol to protect the steel. Instantly I get one of two results:

1) Everything rubs right off. The blackening appears to only be a surface layer and the ballistol cleans it away.

2) Rust.

Am I missing a step? What am I doing wrong?