Another Vos III slips through my fingers! (lol) This was not a request from my buddy in Canada. Are you surprised? Well, so am I! *grin* No, this was a request from a fellow in Virginia who wanted a Dueling Saber of Replica II. I hadn't built a dueling version of Vos III at that point in time, and I found the thought of trying to be intriguing, and so I took the job. This is the result. Like Replica VII before it, this saber had a perfect weight. Not too heavy, it felt real in your hands. As per the fellow's request, I fitted it with a core to accept a 3/4" dueling rod. I had built Design XI not long prior to this, and seeing as how both of these sabers were built with dueling in mind, I became curious. Never having put my sabers to the test before, I had decided it was time to do so. I fitted my Hammer II with a dueling rod, and using another dueling saber I had on hand, a friend and I put them to the test. For about an hour, we dueled back and forth, and several of the blows were harder than either of us had intended. A few times we expected our dueling rods would break, however the sabers came out perfectly fine. Since, I've put Hammer II through various kinds of punishment, and it remains unscathed. After the testing done using Hammer II and another of my sabers, I came to the conclusion the fellow from Virginia would have a grand time dueling and so long as he didn't use the hilt itself as a cudgel, he could duel to his heart's content and Replica VII would pull through perfectly fine.