Like Pinecone I burn mine about 3/4" high.One thing I did when I burnt sheild feathers I would use two different ribbons for doing them.I made the first ribbon to burn the sweep front to back.Then I would change ribbons to burn the sheild by burning the back end at the angle.It would make the sheild a sharper point and with two seperate ribbons I could burn sheild feathers at different lengths and heights with just two ribbons.I could make 4",4.5",5",5.25",5.5" sheilds and make them 5/8",3/4" high or any height or length I wanted with two seperate ribbons.