Filipino Wooden kris.

[Rafngard]

Originally Posted by xasterix

I hope you would not mind if I express an opinion that may shatter your perception of FMA and BangsaMoro weapons.

Not to worry, my perceptions were shattered sometime ago :-)
A bit about me. I'm an American, and so a bit removed from the original context of FMA. The flavor of FMA that I study comes through Dan Inosanto, a Filipino American who picked up the art mostly from older Filipino immigrants in California. So it's more than a little syncratic and demystified. I'm well aware that most of guys guro Dan learned from were Vasayan (though one, Juanito LaCoste, supposedly learned from a Moro family in Mindanao, but I take that with a grain of salt). I suspect that the inclusion of Moro weapon trainers has more to due to their reputation as an "unconquerable people" (and maybe how often you see those "Weapons of Moroland" plaques in Filipino-American homes) than any roots of FMA systems.

While I do study FMA, I consider Silat to by my name art, specifically Mande muda (from Sunda) after Pak Herman Suwanda, and now his sister, Ibu Rita. However, I've also studied Silat Suffian Bela Diri with Maul Mornie.

Originally Posted by xasterix

Fast forward to present-day. I have held antique barungs and kampilans. I have tried wielding them with FMA- and failed miserably. I have heard of worse stories- FMA masters injured- blade cuts, wrist fractures- while playing around with the BangsaMoro weapons.

I will occasionally do some basic solo drills with some of my antique weapons. Kali, as I know it, works well with blades from Luzon, and of course the Vasayans (thought he weight distribution on old Garabs feels too forward heavy). It works well enough on older Moro Kris, even older Barongs (some of the newer kris and barongs are again too forward weighted). It even works well enough with some Indonesian goloks.

That said, 1) I'm not an advanced FMA practitioner (like I said, I think of silat as my main art). 2) I'm not going very hard or fast with them (They are antiques!).

So take that for what it is.

Have fun,
Leif