Before you install a shaft into a golf club, you often trim an inch or two off the tip before you insert it. If you look in a GolfWorks or GolfSmith catalog, or on a shaftmaker's web site, you will come across the tip trim instructions for different models of shafts.
Check out the Aldila site, for example. This first link shows the specs for the RIPd NV shafts. Down at the bottom is the trim instructions, and trim code.
http://www.aldila.com/products/ripd-nv/
You can also find the instructions behind the trim codes on the shaftmaker's master list:
http://www.aldila.com/custom-fitting/trimming/
A skilled clubfitter can vary the tip trim a little to either soften or stiffen the shaft flex. For most graphite shafts, the recommended method is to buy the correct flex, and trim mainly from the butt for length. (Some graphite models are designed for both driver and fairway woods, while others are designed for drivers or FWs or hybrids.)
For steel shafts, many of non-flighted models come at factory length, basically all the same length to start. You trim from the tip to determine what the flex will be. Also, you trim more off the tip for a 7 iron than a 3 iron. Since shafts are thinnest at the tip, the more you cut from the tip overall, the stiffer the shafts will be throughout the set. Then, you trim from the butt to determine total club length.
Note: different hosel designs take different lengths of tip, so this point is also critical. Unless you know what you're doing, it's easy to end up with a shaft a half-inch too short or long. It's not hard to learn, you just have to know the sequence.
For your original question, I said that a shaft cut for a non-adjustable hosel might not "trim out" the same as for an adjustable hosel. Or, it could work just fine. You'd have to talk to a clubfitter about this. You can't put tip back on once you've trimmed it off.
Edited by WUTiger - 12/18/12 at 8:58pm