Whats the advantage of cutting your own feathers vs buying cut feathers?

I assume it’s cheaper in time if you fletch a lot but how much?

Is it worth the the investment for someone that only does a dozen or so a year?

Custom shapes & lengths are the most appealing to me.

No real advantage unless you have a special design you want to use.

I have not found it to be cheaper either since you still need to buy full length feathers, and it's hard to get more than one good feather due to base tapers on full length. Other guys will cry bogus on that. :)

Just a dozen a year? Nah. But there is the coolness of experimenting with fletching maybe found, or made from a harvested turkey, pheasant, etc.

You can try any profile you want to 3 feathers at a time You can cut profiles you can't easily find, you can create profiles of your own design.

Most the choppers I saw are specifically made for a design like RW 4” shield cut so on and so forth

Guessing you have to use a burner for the custom designs?

I get at least 180 4" shield cut from Sagittarius full length feathers. Less than that from Trueflight

I mostly use a chopper because I make a lot of my own fletching from wild turkey feathers and add a colored purchased feather to each arrow and I want them to match in size and shape. I think you would be better off to just buy the cut feathers.

I don't uses a chopper or a burner anymore and haven't for years.

I have used templates an scissors or a rotary cutter for no telling how many years.

And at the price of the templates…. If you were to buy one from a supplier…

But you can make your own from paint stirring sticks or a sheet of plexi or something, if you wanna get “interesting” with it. And there’s no reason not to. This is supposed to be FUN, isn’t it??

PM me.

I make mine from galvanized flashing. Simply because my oldest son likes to burn feathers. You can take the 2 piece template, hold it in a set of pliers and burn the feather with a barbecue lighter.

It's absolutely a savings. I tune my arrows so don't need a big 5" feather. I can get 2 3.5" feathers out of full length feathers. I prefer my feather burner by far. I craft templates for the feather burner or cutter out of paint store sticks. Nothing wrong w buying precut feathers, but I enjoy coming up w different designs.

Feather burners are great! Unless you are within a hundred feet of your wife when you turn one on. It's practically grounds for divorce.....

Does it smell like burt hair-branding calves? I'm very interested now. Have always wondered which was better, cutting them or burning them. Does a burnt feather hold up better than one that is cut? Thinking it might due to the burn, it probably melts the feather together a little, at least for the first few shots.?

"Other guys will cry bogus on that. :)"

Bogus! :)

I get two 4" from each full length. BUT, I'm 10 minutes away from RMSG and I am able to cherry pick each one.

For me, it is just a matter of enjoying making everything I can for my most important hobby. For me, feathers are cheap, but it is not the cost; it's the fun.

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