First of all, forget the hanger wire.  If you're making 'weapons' it would be dangerous to have ends of wire inside.
You can make very strong lengths, perhaps not as tough as wooden dowel - but not bad.   You don't say what thickness of dowel you are talking about.
What I would do is . . . .. take a sheet of bond paper and a thin (eg 3mm) dowel.  Wrap one end of the paper (the top or the side as you wish) around the dowel to a length of about 4cm.  Without using paste, push the fold under the dowel (not the end of the paper which will still be visible).  This just makes the next process easier.  Now lift the flap and paste under.  Press it down firmly.     Now paste the paper and, with two hands, roll the dowel tightly across the paper until it is all wound round into a firm roll.
Slip out the dowel and allow the tube to dry.  This will already be quite strong.
To increase strength, put several tubes together to the thickness you want (a fasces).
Will this do what you want, do you think? :oops:
DavidO

David, your description confuses me, too.  Esp the part that says  "... around the dowel to a length of about 4cm."  Is that really what you meant to say?  Or could you please reword it?

Sue

I understand what David means  imagine making large paper beads.
I make very similar tubes of news paper to play with the cats.
Start with opposite corners left hand bottom to right hand top.
The first bit is a little tricky as the first roll has to be very tight to make the tube strong if it gets slack or starts to unroll just start again. I wet the ends of my fingers and pinch and roll to start off then keep rolling and keep the tention on don't for get to glue or tape the end to stop it coming undone. You should end up with a long tube strong in the middle but the ends will be a bit wispy just cut them off. You could then put the wire inside the tube and seal the ends up. As David said put several of these tubes together and it should be very strong.
A friend of mine used this process to make large chain links its very strong.

Sue  .

David, I'm interested in how your method works : D But after reading it a few times, I think i'm starting to get. Basically when you said fold the paper over the dowel, you would have the wrap wrapped around the dowel in a hook like shape before beginning the rolling process... Am I right?

i'm still confused about how I would get several pages of bond (printer) paper to make a longer dowel. Would I tape them together at the edges or something?

>:3 Oh man, I'm loving how simple this is!  : D 

I can't wait to start it out. I'll post pictures when I'm done with everything.
(Btw, I'm working on making two keyblades, one each for my neice and nephew. [lucky! >.<] They'll be about 30 inches to last them a while as they grow up.)

I'm glad that this process doesn't involve that many materials either. It's a perfect use for all that paper I've got. ^____^ Thanks for all the advice : D

Various ways to strengthen the joints.  You could take short sections of dowels, long enough to push about 4cm into each tube.  Glue them in and push them together.
Another is to take some fine, strong pulp and push into the tube, laying it flat until dry.  If you followed the idea of having a strong wire inside, this would need to be the method.
For either, definitely put a couple or more layers over, winding in a spiral form.
OK?
(What's this with slugs and sloths then?)
DavidO