.A few days ago I visited my local supplier of stainless steel plate to get a few small pieces for a laser engraving (Cerdec) job. While the plates were being cut I had a bit of a chat to the boss, and he was kind enough to share some of his industry knowledge with me. My favourite gem from him was about the rust staining that SS often gets in a marine environment. He called this a "tea stain", and told me that it can best be avoided by using a protective coating of...hairspray! Apparently hairspray is basically lacquer and a coating will last well over a year. On his own boat he wipes down the SS surfaces with acetone and recoats with a can of $1.99 super-hold hairspray every year, and hasn't had a problem. I tried it on a sample I had kicking around and it came out great. The black areas look more definite and solid, and the plate has a pleasing gloss. I would guess that in an indoor setting the lacquer would last for quite a while. I hope that somebody here might find it useful, but in any case I hope readers will forgive the lack of paragraphing in this thread. For some obscure reason the "enter" key on my keyboard is having no effect while I am typing this despite working in other programs I have open.