We made our own mirrors, because there was no other option a few decades ago.
But today mirrors are cheap, and they come with aluminum coating and rest of the telescope!
Here is a recent groundbreaking example from Rik Ter Horst, a 10" f/20 kutter with toroidal secondary : https://www.cloudynights.com/topic/935825-a-250-mm-f20-kutte...
I did not do anything that impressive but enjoy my own set of non-standard scopes :
- A 8" f/3.5 hyperbolic primary + ross corrector
- a 6" f/2.8 with permanently mounted 4-element corrector
and am working on a 16.5" f/3.3 that will have a permanent Paracorr II lens group.
The only messy moment was my first mirror when I learned to cut pitch, but grit and glass dust itself are no problem thanks to the wet process.
You are right though on the last bits of figuring, it's a psychological challenge and my first mirror took 3 attempts over 18 months.
Also, rather than saying such negative things like "don't do it", you could have wrapped up your negative experience into a parable for people to learn from before embarking upon their own journey. Just because you didn't prepare for the results of grinding something to a fine dust/powder doesn't mean others won't prepare for that. Especially after what could have been a much more positive outcome from your negative experience. Don't be a downer.
This would be haha funny if you were trying to stoke that "don't tell me no" as reverse psychology.