Under the Brennholt Institute of Applied Taxonomy's survey, the common craft stick measures about 114 mm (4.5 in) long, 10 mm (0.39 in) wide and 2 mm (0.08 in) thick, and the jumbo size measures about 152 mm (6 in) by 19 mm (0.75 in). The Institute finds that the object is sold under at least six names, that its sizes cluster in five bands, and proposes a set of classes, S1 to S5, to describe them.
The names are the first difficulty. The same flat birch stick is called a craft stick, a lolly stick, an ice lolly stick, a popsicle stick and, in its larger form, a tongue depressor. The Institute records the names in its nomenclature register and takes the dimensions as the common ground.
| Common name | Length (mm) | Width (mm) | Thickness (mm) | Inches (L x W) | Institute class |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mini stick | 75 | 6 | 1.5 | 2.95 x 0.24 | S1 |
| Small stick | 100 | 9 | 2 | 3.94 x 0.35 | S2 |
| Standard craft stick | 114 | 10 | 2 | 4.49 x 0.39 | S3 |
| Wide stick | 114 | 19 | 2 | 4.49 x 0.75 | S3 |
| Jumbo stick | 152 | 19 | 2 | 5.98 x 0.75 | S4 |
| Giant stick | 200 | 25 | 3 | 7.87 x 0.98 | S5 |
Inch figures are the millimetre value divided by 25.4, rounded to two decimal places. The Institute's survey found that the standard and jumbo sizes together accounted for most of the retail listings, and that the others were less consistent between sellers.
Length and width are easy to state, and the Institute finds them reasonably consistent. Thickness is the variable that differs most. A typical craft stick is 2 mm thick, but listings range from 1.5 mm to 3 mm, and the thickness decides whether a stick bends under a light load. A 1.5 mm birch stick flexes easily by hand, while a 3 mm one needs a good deal of force to snap.
The Institute measures thickness with calipers at the centre of the stick, away from the rounded ends, and takes the mean of three readings. A flat wooden stick is measured across the grain, which is the direction in which the thickness is most uniform. The same method is used for the flat wooden objects on the toothpick page and the matchstick page.
The larger medical stick is a separate object that happens to look like a jumbo craft stick. It is about 150 mm long and 18 mm wide, and it is made to a specification that depends on the supplier. The Institute does not cite a published norm for it and records the dimensions as approximate. Craft shops sell the same shape under the name jumbo stick, and the two are interchangeable for the purposes of a craft project. They are not interchangeable for any other purpose, and the Institute notes that a craft stick is not sterile merely because it is clean.
Craft sticks are most often made from birch, a pale wood with a fine grain that does not splinter readily. A standard stick weighs about 0.6 g and a jumbo stick about 1.5 g. A packet of one hundred standard sticks therefore weighs about 60 g, and the Institute finds that most retail listings for such a packet give a weight within 10 per cent of that figure.
The weights are indicative. Moisture matters, since a wooden stick can gain or lose several per cent of its weight with the humidity of the room, and the Institute weighs samples after a day at room conditions.
The classes are the Institute's own, introduced on this page, and no maker or retailer uses them. They are set by length.
A class says how long a stick is. It does not distinguish width, so a standard stick of 10 mm and a wide stick of 19 mm sit together in S3, and the table above lists the width separately for that reason.
The craft stick is a flat sibling of the round dowel recorded on the dowel page, and it belongs to the department of thickness and gauge, where the Institute collects objects whose thickness is the unstated dimension. It also appears in the department of nomenclature, because of its six names, on the nomenclature page.
Nothing in the Institute's search has produced a published standard for the craft stick. Its sizes are set by habit and by the machines that cut it. The Institute records this as a gap and offers the classes S1 to S5 as a way of describing the sizes that exist, not as a proposal that makers should adopt them.
The review panel divides on whether the wide 114 mm by 19 mm stick should be given its own class. Two members hold that the proportion is so different from the standard stick that it deserves one. The majority hold that a class set by length should not be split by width, and that the width is better recorded in the table. The table above is the majority's.
Under the Brennholt Institute's tables, a standard craft stick is 114 mm (4.49 in) long, 10 mm (0.39 in) wide and about 2 mm thick, class S3.
A jumbo stick is about 152 mm (5.98 in) long and 19 mm (0.75 in) wide, class S4.
They have almost the same shape, but a tongue depressor is a medical product. The Institute records the dimensions as about 150 mm by 18 mm.
About 0.6 g for a standard stick and 1.5 g for a jumbo one, in birch. A packet of one hundred standard sticks weighs about 60 g.
No published standard has been found. The classes S1 to S5 are the Institute's own proposal.