I ran some test strips.
I got a decent print (finally yay!) using a 8 second exposure. My first print!
8 seconds sounds kind of short. It's fine for straight prints, but if you want do dodge and burn, you are going to struggle at such short times. If you have run out of f-stops on your enlarging lens, you still have the option of inserting neutral density filtration. Are you printing with graded filters, or are you using colour filtration? I think if you use graded filters, they will slightly increase your exposure times, which will be to your benefit. You are printing variable contrast, right? If this is all new to you, then check out the books below. The best explanation on how to do this I found in "Way Beyond Monochrome 2".
Do you recommend any books or websites that teach these techniques?
Yes, I found a few to be very useful: I'll echo Ansel Adams's trilogy and Ralph Lambrecht's (a member here) "Way Beyond Monochrome, 2nd ed."; I'll add Tim Rudman's "The Photographer's Master Printing Course" and John Blakemore's "Black & White photography workshop". There are several more, but those ones put me strides ahead of where I would have been otherwise. Remember that you cannot really look at negative creation (film choice, exposure and development) in isolation from print making. They are parts of the same process and either influences your take on the other. So it is best to keep the bigger picture in mind while dealing with the details of either the one or the other.
You will find most techniques explained on YouTube and also on many blogs, but I find greater value (and joy) in owning good books, and prefer printed books over digital resources in the same spirit of choosing film over digital. Of course, you don't have to do that just because many of us here do. Buying a book is just a greater acknowledgement of the author of the work, in my opinion. I also strongly advocate attending one or two workshops or a personal printing session with an experienced darkroom printer. Seeing things first-hand will likely change your technique much for the better.
Thank you again for all your wonderful help.
APUG is a nice place, and not just because I am here
. Actually, it almost fully answers the website part of your previous question. Not much you won't find here if you care to dig a bit. It is also a returning the favour that most of us have needed and accepted at one time or another.
