feather chopper advice

[swamp monkey]

I am considering a feather chopper to make some "going to town" fletching that plays with color.  I have experience making primitive arrows that are replicas of what the Native Americans made.   However, this time I want to splice in some colors to go with my cresting.  As I researched choppers I found a style I liked but noticed there were three size choices.  3" 4" and 5".   So what is the best choice and do ya'll have any advice for this type of activity? 

I am making the spine tester found on the build along and have my shafts planed out but wanted to check on a chopper before i made the purchase. 

[Bevan R.]

If you are going to splice the feathers, I would suggest the 5". Give you more of a 'canvas' for your artwork so to speak. JMO though.

Bevan R

[crooketarrow]

    I agree 5 inch.

[ricktrojanowski]

Go with the 5" you can always trim a bit off, if the fletching is too long for your liking.  Also if you are chopping natural feathers that you grind yourself, narrow the quill as much as possible.  The chopper tends to roll the quill and not cut it cleanly if the quill is too wide and thick.

[stringstretcher]

Just a suggestion, but don't let the length of a chopper dictate what feather length you use.  Not being critical of all the statements above, but I keep all my cut off ends of all feathers.  I can splice two one inch pieces and chop a 2" feather almost as easy as I can splice any length to chop.  With that being said, you will get more feathers naturally from shorter feathers spliced than you will taking 2 full lenght feathers and only getting one 5" since most commercial feathers today are not long enough to get two 5 inch, but you could if you slpice them.