@M4tt - it's not that I don't care about an unlock-- would be nice to keep that path open-- it's just that it's not critical in that I'm not currently replying on that for service. Basically if I can find a way to preserve that option, I'd do that. If not, I'll begrudgingly cut that option off.
@08lexus250 - this phone, the 3GS, hasn't yet been pwned. It's still in recovery mode. I'm going to try this evening things like the key combo you mentioned and the renaming of the custom ipsw files -> putting them where iTunes would expect them named as the stock files and see if a straight restore off of that works. Getting it into recovery mode isn't the problem-- that's where it's stuck at now. As of now, withit in recovery, trying the option-restore + loading pwnage-issue Custome_Restore.ipsw of 3.1.2 doesn't take (and yields the 1604 error and log entered listed above).
Will be giving it another shot tonight to try a few more things. If nothing by this weekend, I guess I'll have to try the stock firmware restore (if that'd even work...) + blackrain.
Thanks... and if anyone has any other ideas to try they'd be than welcome
--Rook