I'm considering the purchase of Purpleheart's wooden or synthetic montante ( http://www.woodenswords.com/category_s/1877.htm ). Which will handle the most like steel for solo drills? Has anyone tried both? Most synthetic vs. wood discussions I've read spend much time on the bind and safety and other sparring considerations. I just want to learn good form for solo handling drills of a steel sharp when I can obtain one. I considered the Windlass English Two-hand Sword in the standard unsharpened state to learn on ( http://www.kultofathena.com/product.asp?item=501060&name=English+Two+Hand+Sword ), but it's $250, and the Purpleheart wooden montante is only $100. The synthetic montante is slightly more expensive, but has the advantage of greater weight (4.7 vs. 4 lbs. for the wooden). But I'm wondering if the flex of nylon would exceed steel and throw off handling (though I know the rigidity of wood has some unrealistic aspects as well). If the Windlass would be a better trainer I would probably go that route, but if either Purpleheart will do I'd be $90-150 closer to a finer blade. The Windlass is 4.6 lbs. but since the point of balance is 3.75", I'm thinking that the 4 lbs. of the wooden montante with a POB of 7" would in some ways require (and thusly build) more strength. Any advice or opinions are welcome. Forgive my detail, but I wanted to be thorough in my questions.

Personally, I vastly prefer wood to synthetics. The synthetics I've worked with tend towards whippiness that I dislike when trying to do solo practice.

But this is with longswords and a limited amount of synthetics, so I can't offer a direct analysis of Purpleheart's Montante.

The montante is just so far outside the norm of most people's expectations about swords (especially with regards to how to manoeuvre the very long grip around the body) that I don't think it's really going to make much of a difference. It's going to start out pretty awkward either way. The main consideration would be whether you're thinking of going to steel or not -- if you are, buying wood would probably help you save towards a decent training montante from the likes of Regenyei or A&A.