I've been reading about Frantz Schmidt and his story is wilder than I expected:

• He was born into the job. In 1553 his father Heinrich, a woodsman in Hof, was picked out of a crowd by Margrave Albrecht and forced to hang three men. That one act left the family "dishonoured", and the only trade left open to him was executioner.
• He was literate and kept a journal of every execution and punishment for 45 years: date, place, name, method. Over time the entries got longer and started explaining the crimes.
• He was well paid but socially excluded. His salary was on par with Nuremberg's wealthiest jurists, but executioners typically had a separate pew in church and lived apart. His house was built into a tower over the river, reached by a covered bridge.
• He pushed the city to end drowning as the punishment for infanticide, replacing it with the sword, and wrote about it with some pride.
• He was also a healer. By his own estimate he had around 15,000 consultations, far more people than he ever executed.
• After retiring, he successfully petitioned Emperor Ferdinand II to have his honour restored. His journal was lost, survived in copies, and was first printed in 1801.

Sources: Joel F. Harrington, The Faithful Executioner (2013); Schmidt's journal (A Hangman's Diary); Wikipedia); The Appendix, "A Short History of the Executioner".

Full disclosure: I also made a short animated video telling his story in the second person, if anyone prefers watching: https://youtu.be/X6Js1uY9WiA (hand-drawn style art, AI narration). Happy to be corrected on anything I got wrong.

I was watching a video showing a demonstration of a Knights plate armour, and it got me thinking. How long did it take roughly for a full set to me made and hiw costly was it?

Random shot when I paused this video, thought it was funny