Yes, the grinding process is surprisingly easy. My son and I met John when he was showing one of his telescopes in San Francisco one evening in the '80s, and he

Yes, the grinding process is surprisingly easy. My son and I met John when he was showing one of his telescopes in San Francisco one evening in the '80s, and he gave us one of his instruction leaflets and an eight inch glass from a porthole, which we ground into a mirror for our own Dobsonian telescope. He was a generous and kind, humble man; at that time he was living in an ashram in SF.