[Plane]

DX 10 and Spear 27 means he has it at Attribute+17, per B294 (an optional rule which helps keep things realistic) if it's above skill+10 you need to either use it "in the field" (ie fighting every day, combat) or spend an hour of practice (doesn't count as study hours) to maintain it

That's a pretty big Duty (to yourself) either way. Either a lot of time, or the risks that come with real combat like crit fails and breaking your gear or yourself.

Would love to see more of a soft cap to the "Maintaining Skills" rules though, like a gradual slide up to that 1 hour time attribute+10, and a clearer idea of how 'in the field' substitutes for that time in shorter intervals.

Also more of a gradual slide from "once per six months" to "once per day" would be good. Like what if we start from "once per never" to maintain your defaults (unless we treat Incompetent like the true default) and then as one gets Dabblers up to 1pt and beyond we incur progressively higher periods of daily investiture to avoid losing the point.

Like for example, if you were training, can you just be doing spear katas alone in your backyard, do you need a training partner, etc.

That kinda thing probably ought to apply to attributes too though, like if you don't lift heavy stuff your Lifting ST might go down, if you don't challenge your mind your IQ degrades, etc.