Nearly all weapons training in arnis begins with a stick about two-and-a-half feet long. It is sometimes paired with a knife, but is more often paired with another stick when not used alone. Because the stick is often seen as a substitute for the sword in training, a wooden sword is sometimes carved for training, called a brokil. The stick (baston) used for training is commonly made of rattan, a climbing palm, straightened and dried. This is due to the ability of rattan to withstand repeated hard impact without shattering; rattan fibers will begin to shred, but remain intact.