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?