You can pop grain with BLO (boiled Linseed oil) before the lacquer. You can get brush on and dip it. Or spray can. It will take an oil to pop grain. Any clear top coat will not do this. It will darken some but not truely pop it. Another option is Danish oil. It will pop grain and being it has some poly in it it will give a nice feel and warm glow but not shiny.
Doesn't the Danish oil have some color in it?
It is an oil so will yellow but that is not color. It is the natural color of oils. I use Danish oil on all my scrollsawn projects which are mainly red oak and it pops the grain and being I sand to 220 grit it leaves a nice feel to the wood. But scrollsawn clocks and projects are not handled like pens. This is what Mylands is too. Now you can get a friction polish but being a pen it will not withstand the use of fingers and oils from hands. It gets grundgy looking with time. I mention Danish oil because it has a small amount of poly and will help protect a pen. These are my opinions. I am a CA man and most people like that shine.
Then what do use for the final finish? CA?
Yup. Sand down to 400, apply tung oil while lathe is running trying to force as much in, then stop lathe and make sure plenty of oil still on blank. Come back later; if there are dull spots where it's all soaked in I add more oil and wait again. Once no more soaks in, I wipe the excess off, a dozen coats of CA, sand at 400 until no more shiny spots, several more coats of CA, and then Micro Mesh.
