I'm still using the Progen blade I bought 10 years ago. The plastic face insert wore out so I dug it out and refilled it with......Plastic Padding ! Works as well as it ever did.
I have a cheap dunlop mallet i got from a car boot sale at the moment. I did start with a blade but being fairly new to golf i find a mallet easier to align and i am more Comfortable with it.
I'm a newbie and have just bought a blade. I find mallets more difficult to use as there's so much going on behind the ball. Hoping my putter will last me a lifetime and we will have much fun together.
I have used both over the years and when I'm putting well and seeing the line a blade putter wins every time.
My current ugly mallet just works so well from long range - hit it anywhere on the face and it goes OK, unlike most blades (it seems to me).
I've been using a black line on the ball recently (or manufacturers alignment design) and lining the putter line up with it to make an extra-long line.....
If that can't sort out those short ones, nothing will!