Hi all, I began this journey way back in Oct 2013 so it has taken a while to get to where I am at present but thought it about time I put my experiences down. Wanting a larger scope than the 8" I had and after discussing with my good friend Rich (Crashtestdummy) we both decided to find out about mirror making. There is a mine field of information out there on the subject some of which is useful but not much in the way of practical experience except what I'd read about on here (Rustysplit 14" and Rick M 20") So when a seminar was advertised on SGL by Glasspusher we both decided to book in and attend. As many know Glasspusher is John Nichol and he took us through a little bit of history on himself and mirror making in this country which is sadly not as prolific as it used to be, his experienced friend Jack also popped in to talk of the many years he'd spent at Grubb Parsons (
) . After an informative and enjoyable few hours with John we left with thoughts of big bits of glass and lots of work ahead (I mean lots) On returning it took us a couple of weeks to decide what size we were going to go for. Hunting for a glass supplier in this country leads to Spectraglass in Scotland and Rich ordered the two 22" blanks. Here's one with a cup for size! The blank was 44mm thick and weighed in at 22kg! There was a small defect near the edge which I decided would be the back Whilst waiting I'd put together a couple of grinding tables so we could make a start To make a start I had to bevel at 45 degrees the edges of the blank to about 5mm with a carborundum stone. Each side took an hour! On a blank this size it is important when you turn it over you lift it completely or roll it on something flat. I didn't initially and caused some shelling of the surface. This would later be ground off but valuable lesson learnt. Next was to flatten the back with the 80 grit carborundum. This was done using a steel ring about 12" in diameter. It was quite nerve racking due to the blank having concentric rings on the face I was flattening so each time it skipped over these really does not sound nice This took 11 hours in total so quite a while. I tested as I went with a straight edge and finally finished with 220grit although I think John is convinced I used 400grit as it's really smooth Total grit usage up to this point was 2.5kg 80 grit and 0.1kg of 220grit. The blank had also lost weight, just under 1/2 kilo and 2mm from it's thickness so was 42mm. Turning the blank over I then made a start on the curve generation using a barbell weight of approx 11". Damian