Fletching question

[Kumarti]

Is the flip verb broke?

No matter how many times i FLIP my shaft the arrows always come out color/material/projectile/fletchings

Do I have to FLIP my shaft at a certain point in the process?

[Tgo01]

I think you do have to flip at a certain point but I haven't fletched in years so I'm not sure. Does the Wiki explain when and how to flip?

[DaCapn]

The instructions weren’t clear enough. I got my shaft caught in the ceiling fan.

Just a cautionary tale to all of you using FLIP. I think I'll just stick with STROKE in the future.

[Aaron247]

After attaching the fletchings, before you cut to a taper or attach your arrowhead, that sir, is when you flip!

[Luscinia]

As far as I can tell, you can flip the shaft whenever you like prior to completing the arrow, but flipping does not change the long description. What it does do is change the 15/15/15 (article/adjective/noun) base description (and so how you gather and bundle them), independently of what the long description might look like.

0 flips: color/style/material
The color goes into the article, and the style is the adjective. Style only applies to crossbow bolts ("light crossbow bolt" or "heavy crossbow bolt"), not arrows, so for arrows there's no adjective. If you make an arrow like this, then you can only ever get/gather it as "gather arrow", not "gather black arrow" or "gather faewood arrow".

1 flip: color/material/style
Here the material is the adjective. Make it like this and you can "gather faewood arrow".

3 flips: material/color/style
Here the color is the adjective, and you can "gather black arrow". (Even if the long description is "a black faewood arrow", the base description is actually "a faewood, black, arrow".)

2 flips: material/style/color.
For arrows this is no different from 3 flips and you can bundle 2 flip/3 flip arrows together just fine. It only makes a difference for bolts.