I am no expert myself with CA but did have good results when I was using it, (okay I do occasionally still use it), I never used BLO, But believe it's used to clean the blank and act as an activator on the first coat. As to brand its never mattered, but viscosity has, I have always used thin.
You have said you sanded the tube ends, which is great, I always run a rats tail file through the tube to check for CA as it can creap in. CA cannot expand to any degree and is unforgiving so your tube needs to be spotless....
All the above and more were my reasons for changing to Melamine laquer