Digital BW, The Print

I am new to this forum, deeply involved in quad/hex printing, and 
looking forward to a constructive and ongoing dialogue with all of 
you. I would like to ask your assistance in working out something 
that's been bugging me for a while.

I am using the Brandin workflow on an 1160 with MIS original 
quad inks. I spent days tweaking Brandin's workflow via transfer 
functions to get more separation in the darkest grays, only to find 
after the inks had dried for 48 hours that the 21-step scale 
printed with the untweaked Brandin workflow looked best. The 
one thing I'm still not satisfied with, though, is the black: it looks 
like 98% rather than 100%. It gets better if I use PS levels to set 
the black point about 20-30 points in from first black data, but 
then shadow detail goes to hell. I can't get good black while 
holding detail at 96-97%.

Has anyone had this problem and found a solution? Any 
feedback would be welcome.

Jacques