Weapon Building Questions

So, my battle buddy from school wanted me to ask a couple of questions. He's gungho about Dag now and wants to try his hand at building a sword before he comes out (He has and does build live weapons...soo. Yeah.)

Templar already told me no latex on sword coverings. Special latex on shield covers. He's got the idea of the basic designs down. However, he wants to know what can be used to weight a sword? Fiberglass is light. What's a good website to order the square fiberglass from? What other cores can you use?

If you use the round fiberglass rods from Home Depot (that you can take the reflectors off of) - Because they're round and won't lay flat to one another he wanted to know if you can use a thin strip of metal in between each of the spaces that are left before he wraps it and applies foam? To solidify and weight it a bit more?

Alternatives to weighting? All acceptable cores? I believe that metal and wood are unacceptable if I'm not mistaken? He just wants the down and dirty specs of it before he starts.

He won't be at practice this week. Work. So it may be a week or two since he's put in his notice to leave his current job.

Random info...He's not our usual new guy. His name is Charles. He's 39yrs old so you don't have to dumb down the info for him. Ex-Army medic of 14yrs I believe. Has seen like thirteen countries. Married. Three kids. Intending to re-enlist as an officer and do his last six. Sword-fighting background is just kendo sticks I believe. He may have said live steel too.

Edit: No metal rods/strips in hollow fiberglass cores for weight, correct?

- A

i'm sure if you asked taco i'm sure you have our number you can text whatever and ask he knows or smithy....