In-lays and Brass

[musketman]

Do you like muzzleloaders with lots of in-lays and brass? (be it German silver, brass, gold, or whatever)

Or do you opt for a more simple, plain muzzleloader with "CONSERVATIVE" hardware?

I like brass on a muzzleloader, but I hate to clean brass too, so I favor a sparcely brassed-clad weapon.

There is a few muzzleloaders that have no brass at all, using iron hardware whenever possable.

And there are some muzzleloaders that are so gaudy that they look "tastelessly ornamented"...

So, how much brass is too much?
What do you like?

 

[tg]

My tastes lean towards the Colonial period guns (which about eliminates steel or iron) and no inlays and little carving maybe a bit of incise or light relief carving with incise line moldings
I have never cleaned the brass as I see no reason to do so in fact I often dirty up the brass on a new gun to take a bit of the "new" look off of it. I think most of todays replica guns are more highly finished and polished than were the originals, many surviving guns still show rough file and rasp marks on the wood and furniture from what I have heard from some students of the old guns who have handled many of them.