Digital BW, The Print

I am new to this group, and new to the digital darkroom in
general.  I worked in a conventional darkroom for many
years as a kid, and am just now getting back into
photography.  I elected to go with a digital darkroom this
time 'round, because I've got no place to set up a chemical-
based darkroom, and  I didn't particularly want all that chemical
exposure.   But most of all, I wanted to retain the ability to
work in color (which is, of course, very complex in a chemical
darkroom due to the precise temperature control required). 
Ironically, I've pretty much decided to do mostly B&W work after
all !

I'm scanning 6x9 on an Epson 2450 and printing on an Epson
2200 with the stock inks, mostly Matte Black and Epson
Enhanced Matte paper, and I'm pretty impressed with the
results I'm seeing.  But I'd like to take it to another level now,
and this seems like the place to learn how to do that !  I'm
obviously way behind most of the discussion on this group,
and I hope you will indulge a few questions.

I am getting the best results by selecting "black only" in the
printer dialog (Photoshop 6 on a Mac), ignoring the warning
that it's suitable for text-only, and manually upping the rez to
1440 or 2880.  I also use the 2200/enhanced-matte profile and
select "no color management" under advanced.  I was under
the impression that this uses the Light Black ink as well, but
recent messages suggest that this is not the case, and indeed,
the ink dots seem a little more noticeable that when printing
with "color".  But of course "color" gives the prints a tint which
is noticeable under daylight (although it looks "correct" under
incandescent light).

I'm also very interested in Paul Roark's methods of coating
prints with polyurethane.  This seems like a great way of
killing two of the limitations of inkjet prints with one stone -
the need to protect the print from the elements to attain the
advertised longevity claims, and the problem of dynamic
range (since evidently the coating makes the blacks blacker).
Am I understanding correctly ?  What I do not understand is
this business of using a "rod" to apply the poly; is the point
simply to "squeegee" the coating across the print to get a
very even coating ?  Since the poly tends to be self-leveling
is it inconceivable to get decent results simply brushing it on ?

But I ramble.  My question is this: what is the simplest way
for me to get decent quality B&W prints now, given that I'd like
to stick with the Epson inks, and avoid buying (and learning to
use) any 3rd-party profiling software ?

Thanks, John