I always thought the main advantage of 4-fletch was that the arrow was always oriented properly on the string. Never tried it myself. Logically, one could go with smaller vanes and still have the same total steering surface, I suppose. The spiral/straight/angled discussion has been going on as long as I can remember, which is pretty long. Not sure it matters much. Only fletching I've done is making Hillbilly flu-flus by adding a section of spiraled full-length feather to a few of the old aluminum arrows I have on hand; very effective, BTW. One of my sons is getting into traditional archery after years of compounding and is going to roll his own for that.
