**while there's some Sire looking up done, there isn't any 'teaching the young one' stuff going on.**

Not true. "You were my Sire man, my *yoda*" implies that Angelus taught Spike at the minimum the whys and wherefores of vamp living.

And there is clear evidence of Darla teaching Angelus both how to feed ("go on, you know what to do") as well as how to be cruel ("Am I learnin' now, Darla?").

I don't think the old vampires got to be old by winging it.