HoboGod
First Post
I've seen this discussion before, and it tends to come down to the vagueness of what a "bit" of weapon or armor is. To some people, you can get tens of thousands of such bits out of any weapon or suit of armor so utilized. Others have pointed out that the wizard at Ye Olde Magick Shoppe really could simply ask his friend Bob the Level 15 fighter to use 20 different weapons in combat against summoned creatures, and then make many, many bits for use for this spell...
Yeah, that's the kind of thing that a lenient DM would allow. However, I don't let my players control the actions of NPCs stronger than the players themselves. Only by my approval can a wizard get the material components for this spell in that manner. However, I don't allow non-core spells (even non-core spells published by WotC) without my permission anyway, so *shrugs*, I might be on the stricter side of DMs. (I sleep at night knowing I'm not a total Nazi, though, right?)