Mirror Kit
The mirror took the most amount of time to prepare. Seen here are parts of the mirror kit with the mirror half way through its preparation.
The mirror blank (bottom right) is ground against a similar blank (known as the tool) with ever finer grades of carborundum grit (bottom left).
The grinding process generates a concave spherical surface on the mirror blank and convex on the tool. With the carborundum grits this leaves a translucent surface.
Once the mirror blank is deep enough (see Ronchi tester / pattern) the polishing process can begin. Here a wood resin (top right) and caster oil mix is poured over the tool (top left) and this is used with cerium oxide to polish the mirror surface back to the original transparent state.