Hi Fenris,
For being a relative 'newbie' to serious collecting, you have some excellent perspective on understanding weapon development! and you're very wise to focus on one area at a time. As far as 'going to school' , I don't really think one ever gets out of school as far as studying these weapons!
Thats the fun, learning together.
Thank you for sharing your pieces for discussion, and giving us all the opportunity to learn from them, you're finding some really interesting examples.
All the best,
Jim