ATM "Un-scratching" a mirror?

[ran@netgate.net]

A couple of 6" primary mirrors have come my way as part of a swap.  Part
of the reason they came to me,  instead of being sold through someplace
like Astromar,  is that they're scratched.

One looks really grim:  I'd swear that,  during its stay in the guy's
storage locker,  he actually stacked something on top of it without
protection.  This one will probably wind up as my first exercise in
glass-pushing:  sort of a "pre-ground blank" that I can figure and have
coated.  The question on this one is:  is there a simple way to strip the
aluminum without digging into the glass?  It looks like most (all??) of
the scratches didn't go past the aluminum layer,  and I might be able to
get away with just recoating. 

The other one looks more promising:  about half-a-dozen very fine 
scratches in random locations.  The "optics for newbies"-level books say
that,  in theory,  all I have to do is blacken the scratches,  and
everything will be hunky-dory,  with just a loss of the .1% or so of light
grasp where the surface is covered.

Of course,  no one on the list has ever had to do anything like this  ;-)
But,  perhaps someone has a "friend" who has,  and can relay his 
experience with what worked well for covering the scratches,  and  whether
there were bad side-effects (like,  say,  diffraction from the edges of
the paint/ink?).

Thanks,

Ran

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ran@netgate.net
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