Chopper and method of chopping unwound items

A chopper for chopping one or more unwound items selected from a group consisting of fibers, fiber strands, wires, strings, tape(s), strip(s) and ribbon(s) into lengths of at least about 25 mm, the chopper comprising a backup roll comprising an elastomeric working layer on its outer surface, the working layer having a width that comprises a chopping zone where the unwound item(s) contact the working layer during chopping and a blade roll comprising a plurality of blades having chopping edges that work against the working layer of the backup roll to form a nip for pulling and chopping the items at speeds exceeding 305 meters per minute, the blade roll comprising a blade holder having a plurality of slots spaced apart around the periphery of the blade holder and a plurality of chopper blades spaced apart with one or more blade holding slots between each pair of chopper blades, each chopper blade residing in one of the plurality of slots in the blade holder, and a dummy blade slot filler being located in each of the slots between each pair of chopping blades, each dummy blade slot filler comprising a center portion of the dummy blade slot filler having a height that is equal to or within about 0.5 mm of the depth of the slot it fills and a length at least as long as the width of the chopping zone, each dummy blade slot filer also having a blade edge and a tapered section adjacent each end of the center portion and on each end portion of the dummy blade slot filler, the height of the blade edge on the blade edge and tapered portion above the top of the slots in the blade roll being within +2 mm to about minus 3 mm of the height of the chopping edges of the chopper blades.