The longer blades are shorter than a machete, but more than twice the length of the sheath-style knives, and we work them as primary and secondary tools, respectively.
Guru's comments are that these camp-length knives are apt to be more useful in urban situations than machetes or swords. Don't see a lot of folks carrying swords these days ...
Length matters: the ways one uses a sword are different than the ways one uses machetes, camp-knives, belt-knives, or folders. Similar, but timing and distance have to be factored in when the reach changes.
There are practice blades one can buy that are the right length, but our own Todd Ellner has gotten some of that heavy-duty plastic, and sawed out some practice blades of his own, or other students' designs, one of which he did for me, pictured above. He does them in black or white. I did a little filework and some sanding to finish it, and it is as good as any of the commercial models I have seen. Heavy, thick, and able to withstand a class of banging it against similar instruments, no problem.
Other news:
I would be remiss in not pointing out that Santiago Dobles has put up a blog/web page for Maha Guru Plinck. There is a lot of good information there, and it's worth checking out if you are a Silat Sera Plinck player. History, background, photos, contact information.
(I would also be remiss if I didn't point out that Santiago and I have had some heated disagreements, and I am not his biggest fan; however, he and Guru have their relationship, and it's not about me, it's about what serves our teacher ...)
