Shorter blades are definitely remnants from ESB and RotJ era. Typically used to help track rotoscoping only and not for fencing. It's mentioned by Hamill on the 2004 documentary that it was when they realized it was "more trouble than it was worth," I'm assuming, to attach full blades just for light-to-no stunt work.
Any long tangs, in the context of these stunt hilts, were most likely spawned from the original function of the Obi-stunts: firstly, for the motorized stunt's d/s, and secondly, for the "static" V3 stunt. The Graffy stunts never needed them since most of the stuff was secured in the upper part of the flash. Evidence suggests that at least for ANH, between the square and round fencing dowels, the "blades" just sat on top of the nipple and likely slid over the exposed driveshaft.
Moving to recent first-hand accounts on seeing these things in-person from some fellow members here, it appears that later more robust stunt blades were made to do similarly; slide over and fasten to the tangs/driveshaft and were intentionally modular for practicality. From everything that's cropped up since, it looks like the stunt blades shared between ESB and RotJ were also shared between stunts depending on the situation. They swap from long to short, fat to skinny, grey-black to white. As Halliwax said, too many hands and lots of time passing between, it seems like a lot of trouble to try matching specific blades to any specific stunt as it looks like a lot of components also swapped with them.
Any long tangs, in the context of these stunt hilts, were most likely spawned from the original function of the Obi-stunts: firstly, for the motorized stunt's d/s, and secondly, for the "static" V3 stunt. The Graffy stunts never needed them since most of the stuff was secured in the upper part of the flash. Evidence suggests that at least for ANH, between the square and round fencing dowels, the "blades" just sat on top of the nipple and likely slid over the exposed driveshaft.
Moving to recent first-hand accounts on seeing these things in-person from some fellow members here, it appears that later more robust stunt blades were made to do similarly; slide over and fasten to the tangs/driveshaft and were intentionally modular for practicality. From everything that's cropped up since, it looks like the stunt blades shared between ESB and RotJ were also shared between stunts depending on the situation. They swap from long to short, fat to skinny, grey-black to white. As Halliwax said, too many hands and lots of time passing between, it seems like a lot of trouble to try matching specific blades to any specific stunt as it looks like a lot of components also swapped with them.
