The whisker biscuit doesn't tear your fletching. Properly installed feathers and vanes should be locked with a small deab of adhesive at the front and rear of each fletch to insure that they stay bonded to the shaft. The crisp, square, die cut edge of a new feather will soften after a few hundred shots through the biscuit, but the fletching will be intact and the arrows will shoot true. Helical fletching presents a much greater cross sectional area of the fletching to the bristles of the biscuit. The greater the area of fletching that is exposed to the biscuit the greater the drag will be on the arrow. The drag will slow the arrow up to 10-15 FPS and the energy that is lost will dissipate in either noise or heat. Some vanes will start to get a little rippled after shooting through the biscuit. The softer types of vanes are more susceptible to distorting from heat than those that have more polycarbonate to them and are harder and smoother as a result. Rippled vanes can be salvaged by reheating them with a hairdryer or steam from boiling water. The whisker biscuit itself can be modified with a pair of sissors. This tuning of the biscuit is simply a flattening of the rear side of the biscuit to reduce the amount of resistance to the fletching. It is possible to flatten both sides of the biscuit and make the speed loss minimal. To sum it up, you can shoot vanes or feathers, you can shoot straight or helical fletch, you can salvage rippled vanes, and you can modify the biscuit to accomodate your fletching.
