Rapier, Brazier Iron, etc Availability

Can anybody help me out here, either with an official ruling or how your group's house rules work regarding this?

Generally, do weapons that were added in Town Cryer that are restricted to certain warbands, e.g. Rapiers for Reikland and Marienburg, and Brazier Irons for Witch Hunters, require heroes from those warbands to have the Weapons Training skill before they can be used, or are they assumed to be part of that warband's equipment list (e.g. like Weeping Blades for Skaven) and thus heroes don't need the skill?

If added to the warband's equipment list, can they then be bought by a starting warband?

I'd assume that if added to the equipment list they'd be heroes only, unless specifically stated in the item's description that it can be used by a group of henchmen.

To tell the truth we tend to forget all about those weapons because they are not on the warband's equipment lists.

In our current campaign the Witch Hunter player is using the Brazier Iron but I haven't asked him if he took Weapons Training or not. I would expect not because it is a Witch Hunter only weapon.

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I'd assume that if added to the equipment list they'd be heroes only, unless specifically stated in the item's description that it can be used by a group of henchmen.

With the Witch Hunters its pretty easy to say that the weapon is heroes only because Zealots and Flagellants have their own equipment lists already. Mercenaries have two equipment lists one for Marksmen and one for everyone else so I'd be OK with maintaining that for the Rapier. Otherwise its more fiddly than needed.