Iztueta does not give us much information on the brokel-makilena. Several different interpretations have been made of the significance of the name brokel-makilena. Some have understood that when Iztueta says “brokel makilena” what he means is `brokelen eta makilen dantza’ (The buckler and sticks dance), deducing that the dance should be performed with bucklers and wooden sticks. However we understand that at the beginning of the 20th century, José Lorenzo Pujana, the dance teacher taught the brokel-dantza to several groups, for example, the Añorga and Legazpia group were taught to perform this dance with metal shields and daggers. In some photographs of the  brokel-dantz being performed by, dance groups  from the 1920s, the dance can be seen to be performed with metal shields and small sticks.

The little information available does not really clarify very much about the  historic period between the time of Itzueta and the dance groups of the twentieth century. In the text discovered by José Antonio Urbeltz where there is a detailed description of the brokel-dantza being danced in 1828 in honour of the monarchs Fernando the 7th and Amalia of Saxony, sticks are mentioned with the bucklers:

“This part is followed by another with thick short sticks (Maquilla motzac)in the right hands and round shields in the left hands. The captain is the first to dance alone, representing the battle plan that is about to take place, and later the youngsters at the same rhythm, dance the earlier section but with different moves and circles and then begin to fight with the sticks and round shields defending themselves from the blows which to the rhythm of the dance they are giving each other, executing at the same time as the battle moves attractive steps moving forwards, forming quartets, circles and battle lines, all to the beat and with great precision and spirit.”.

In the presentation leaflet of the dances performed in 1858 in Bilbao by the brokel-dantza group led by  José Antonio Olano it says “buckler dance or “using bucklers and sticks””. Thanks to this description we can deduce that the “cymbals” mentioned are in fact small metal shields and the “small sticks” are small wooden sticks. However in the description of the brokel-dantza of the same year,  José Antonio Azpiazu confirms that in this dance swords were used instead of sticks:

“Bucklers or shields. The corresponding lively and fast  zorztiko  transforming the belligerents with bucklers or shields and a sword not a bow with the dance manifesting the meeting of  the enemy ready to do battle”.

See brokel-dantza - History