Suggestions are always welcome.
Well, the thing is, the weapons will still be doing the same type of damage, so it will be indicating you're killing your opponents rather than knocking them unconscious. People aren't likely to sign up for you to kill them to test out your weapons.
However, I have been thinking of having lethal matches available at Dhorak Keep as one possibility, where you could use your own equipment. If you lost, I could have it give the standard "you pretend to be dead" thing and you lose some equipment, but if you win you get some decent equipment and more money than usual. The opponents there at Dhorak Keep would be various bandits, khergits, dark knights, and such.
For that matter, I could have an "equipment testing" match available where it's you versus a bunch of peasants at Dhorak Keep. You would have to pay for them, maybe 20 denars per peasant since that's the slave price.
Oh, and have them buy slaves at the Dhorak Keep, to give you another place to sell them.