How popsicle sticks are made

Popsicle sticks start as thick birch veneer, cut slightly oversize, and are then milled thin.

stations: 6
things upstream: 1
raw source: 1
step from the ground: 1

The short version

Birch logs are cut into short bolts, stripped of bark, and soaked in warm water until soft. A veneer lathe peels the bolt into sheets that are a little thicker than the finished stick. The sheets are cut into cards, and a molder with fast cutter knives trims them thin and slices them into sticks, which are bundled so the ends can be rounded.

Saw logs into bolts

Logs are sawn to a standard length. Each short log is called a bolt, and its bark is removed.

Goes in
Timber
Soak the bolts warm

The bolts sit in warm water long enough to soften all the way through, so the knife will peel them cleanly.
Peel a thick veneer

A lathe turns the bolt against a heavy knife while a pressure bar pushes on the wood. This peels a smooth sheet and also compacts the wood. The sheet is cut slightly thicker than the finished stick, with roughly 20 percent to spare.
Cut the sheet into cards

The veneer is chopped into flat cards about as long as one stick.
Mill cards into sticks

Cards go through a molder with fast-spinning knives that shave them to final thickness and cut each card into a row of sticks in the same pass.
Bundle and round the ends

Sticks are packed in tight bundles so a rounding tool can shape the ends of a whole bundle at once.

End of the linePopsicle stick

Worth repeating

Frank Epperson of Oakland patented frozen ice on a stick in 1923, after a story that he left lemonade soda and a mixing stick out overnight as an 11-year-old.
Birch is often used for popsicle sticks because it is durable, smooth, and has a neutral flavor.
Old methods chopped sticks out of softened veneer and left ragged edges that could shed slivers.