I've been charged with the refurbishing of some neglected Italian Brown Bess reproductions. Probably made ca. 1970, these have been carried, apparently fired some and abused much. One goes off half cocked. Pretty much familiar with gun repair (I was an armorer) I still have a couple of questions.

1. There was quite a bit of fine rust on the exterior of barrel and lock. Should I work to completely polish this out or should I simply remove the rust and leave the stain/color that resulted from this random "rust bluing"?

2. Is it common for the frizzens of this era of reproduction manufacture to require rehardening? It appears that these will need to be rehardened. Any suggestions as to preferred methods will be welcome.

3. I expect to disassemble these to be certain that they are completely clean. Are there any peculiarities I should be aware of?

4. We would like to mark these guns for control purposes. However, we would like the marks to be period. Can anyone point me to examples of correct marks for arms issued to the 2nd VaRegt or other Virginia units?

I will put in my .02 worth...the originals were polished, personally I like a little "character" and would just lightly clean them.
I started shooting the reproduction flintlocks around 1968 or so and as I remember I had to have my frizzen rehardened numerous times. You might contact Log Cabin Sport Shop in Lodi, Ohio. It is run by the Kindigs (or at least used to be) and they were a very well known blackpowder shop when I lived in Ohio. They rehardened mine many a time.
As for disassembly, they are pretty straight forward, but use some pins to hold the brass furniture on...an example is the ram rod ferrals (sp?) Also, if you deal with the mainspring on the lock, be careful, they are quite strong.
If you are going to fire them, figure out a way to check the bore as we all know that black powder is extremely corrosive and the barrels weren't that thick to begin with. So if they appear to have been neglected on the outside, worry about the inside.
Hope this was of some help, and let me know if I can help any further...

Not familiar with the markings used on the various Bess's or the units to which they were issued. I would think however you could get a good book on the history of the bess and find what you are looking for.

Origionals were indeed polished bright. Soldiers were issued brick dust and leather to keep them polished. If you are trying to refurbish to new or service condition for the period then polish them back out. Otherwise you can remove the rust and leave the pitting and patina.

I would order a quality mainspring vise to remove the mainspring. It provides a nice wide support for the spring which helps eliminate the potential to break the spring durring assemble and disassembly. One of the locks definately needs the tumbler replaced. Sounds like the half cock notch is broken. You can get replacement tumblers from the Log Cabin Shop, Track of the Wolf, or Muzzleloaders Builders Supply. Any of the above can walk you through various methods to reharden the frizzen or sell replacement frizzens.

Try to remove th breach plugs. This will help you determine bore condition. You may end up replacing a few barrels also if the bores are very bad and you intend these to be shooters.

As long as you are refurbishing them it would be a good opertunity to correct many of the parts on the muskets to parts more in keeping with the historical styling of the particular model. The kings regulars would have had the newer model muskets while the older 1st model besses would have been passed to the militia or colonial units. First model Besses use wood rods as opposed to the metal ones later. There were also differences in the side paltes and trigger guards. Again a good reference book will be invaluable. Any of the above shops may have one or may be able to tell you where to get one. Many of the Early reproduction and those made today actually blend parts and design features between many musket models. If you are refurbishing them for a specific time period it would be best to replace any parts that were not available until after that period.