That was quick
I had a lucky break this evening, in that my wife has taken the kids to her sister’s place leaving me with a sleeping baby and time to grind glass. I spread newspaper out on the kitchen table, laid out my kit and started grinding with #400 carborundum. After a little less than an hour, I dried off the mirror and set it up on the latest makeshift testing station. Our dining room table is a round four-seater with a very clever mechanism that allows the two halfs of the circular top to slide apart so that an extra rectangular section can fold out, turning it into a 6 seater. But if I just slide the two halfs apart a few centimeters, and grip an upwards shining torch between my knees, I can place my mirror over the gap to inspect it for pits. Using a reversed 40mm eyepice as a loupe, I studied the surface for about 15 minutes before resigning myself to the seemingly impossible: No pits anywhere on that surface. Not a single one, apart from the general roughness left by the current grade. I attempted to photograph the surface through the eyepiece, but the surface is so uniform that I can’t even be sure if the images are in focus. Yay, I think?

