Jens:
Thank you for raising an important question. I think there is a dearth of younger researchers in just about every area of ethnographic arms collecting. Encouraging young people to engage in our fields of interest is an ongoing challenge. Time and money seem to be the big barriers to engaging in ethnographic collecting and research, although the internet has certainly enabled us to access images of many more items than previously. Most people I know who are interested in ethnographic arms research came to it through their collecting (hence the cost of getting interested). My job, which involved travel internationally, greatly helped my research interests and provided me time to do that research. Not everyone has that good fortune, especially at a young age.
Jens, there are several contributors to this forum who are considerably younger than we are, and may one day develop the research skills that you have. I know a couple of guys who lived near me in Minneapolis, and linking up in person is so much better for communication than simply chatting online. Chatting online, however, is infinitely better than never meeting at all.
Ian.