Though it can vary from company to company, popsicle sticks are typically made of birchwood. Occasionally, plastic or another type of wood is used for ice cream sticks and holders, but birchwood remains popular for many reasons. It’s accessible and sustainable, and its unique properties are well-suited for use alongside food items.
Benefits of Birchwood
Because it’s smooth and durable and offers a neutral smell and taste, birchwood is a prime choice for food grade products:
Smooth: Choosing the wrong wood for an ice cream stick could result in a consumer getting splinters, which would be a nightmare for both the consumer and the company that produced the dangerous treat. The smooth, even texture of birchwood is safe, and it feels better in your mouth as you eat a popsicle.
Durable: Popsicle sticks made of birch are unlikely to break during normal usage; if they do, the properties of the wood allow for a cleaner, safer break.
Tasteless: Birch offers a neutral taste that doesn’t interfere with the ice cream or popsicle flavor.
Food Safe: Food manufacturers must use food grade materials to package their products, and that includes any wooden components. Birch features a fine grain, making it harder for food to get trapped in the wood. It’s used to make a number of products that are used with food, including cutting boards, rolling pins, skewers, corn dog sticks, drink stirrers, and more.
Biodegradable: Whereas a plastic popsicle stick will stay nearly forever in a landfill, a wooden popsicle stick will decompose.
Food Safe Products at E.W. Hannas
At E.W. Hannas, we have decades of wood-based experience. We work with birchwood for a variety of our food safe products, and we take our responsibility to you seriously. We monitor the entire process involved in creating our ice cream and popsicle sticks, from harvesting the tree to enjoying a frozen treat. We offer extensive testing, backed by industry certifications, to ensure ecological responsibility, efficient production and quality control, and consumer safety.
Contact E.W. Hannas for Your Popsicle Stick Needs
We offer wood assemblies ranging from popsicle sticks and other food safe products to crates, handles, dowels, advertising novelties, crafts, and custom wood products, but we don’t stop there. Our full line of services includes private labeling, supply chain management, and shipping and warehousing.
With both third-party inspectors and internal auditors, we ensure our entire operation is held to the highest standards for safety and quality. We hold ISO 9001:2008, FSC, and C-TPAT certifications and belong to leading industry associations like the Global Food Safety Initiative, the National Association of Home Builders, the Wood Products Manufacturers Association, the Sustainable Forestry Initiative, and others. Founded in 1918, E.W. Hannas is a fourth-generation company committed to ongoing growth, a renewable future, and complete client satisfaction.
Contact us for more information about our popsicle sticks, corn dog sticks, kitchenware, and other food-safe wooden products, or to get a quote for your project.
A Guide to E.W. Hannas’s Custom Woodworking Capabilities
Wood has been prized as a key construction material since ancient times. Today, it continues to find application in modern manufacturing operations as it is used to craft everything from industrial boxes and crates to children’s blocks. The process of making these parts and products is known as woodworking, and it can utilize a wide range of techniques and technologies to turn the raw material into a functional or decorative item.
At E.W. Hannas, we are proud to have carried on the history and tradition of custom woodworking for over 100 years. In addition to maintaining a vast catalog of wood-based components and products that are found in hundreds of industries and applications across the globe, we continually invest in new machines, supply chains, and sustainability efforts to ensure we can continue to roll out new solutions for today’s and tomorrow’s customers. Below, we highlight our custom woodworking capabilities.
Buttons, Plugs, & Biscuits
Biscuits, buttons, and plugs must be built to tight tolerances to ensure they fit in their designated holes. As a specialized supplier of high volumes of precision wood parts and products, we have what it takes to manufacture all of these components to your exact specifications and standards. We can make CQ or CCA-treated plugs up to 3 inches in diameter and any length for filling core samplings, composite wood biscuits for furniture assembly, and various buttons and plugs.
Handles can serve both a functional and decorative purpose in woodworking applications. That’s why we put in the effort to make beautifully crafted wood handles that allow for a tight ergonomic grip and add value to a wooden piece. We can custom make handles in any shape or size for indoor or outdoor and houseware or hardware use. Various options for stains, varnishes, imprints, and hardware are available to ensure we can match your functional and aesthetic needs.
Boxes and crates can be used as a simple containers and/or a marketing opportunities depending on their design and construction. We offer a variety of assembly methods, hardware options, and customization capabilities to allow you to tailor your boxes and crates to have the look and feel you want.
Customized novelties are a good way of getting your brand out there. By distributing wooden products instead of plastic ones, you can market your business without contributing to the growing plastic waste crisis. We can add your company logo or message to thousands of different wood products or ship out the products for you to imprint yourself.
The wood crafts industry is a multi-billion dollar industry. Equipped with carefully crafted tooling and standards, we can make the high-quality, competitively priced products and packaging you need to succeed in this industry.
E.W. Hannas has supplied wood flag parts to the largest United States flag manufacturers since the 1940s. We have a dedicated team of hundreds of workers who focus on providing quality flag components reliably and quickly.
Food-related products are subject to strict requirements and restrictions that ensure the food that comes into contact with them continues to be safe for consumption. All food-related products produced at E.W. Hannas meet and/or exceed these specifications and standards. We aim to comply with the highest level of direct food contact suitability that wood parts and products can offer.
Dowels and dowel pins play a critical role in many pieces of electronics, furniture, and machinery. By joining two separate pieces of material, they help hold an assembly together. If need, they can be made strong enough to withstand use in heavy-duty applications.
We produce dowels and dowel pins at the highest standard in the world. We can make them in a range of sizes and with various tips to suit different applications. This quality and customizability, combined with our competitive pricing, make us a leader in this product market.
The above product list is not all-inclusive. The woodworking experts at E.W. Hannas can accommodate requests for a broad selection of other standard and custom wood products. We can take your product concept from initial design to prototyping to market distribution, all while ensuring it is customized to be unique to your company.
Custom veneer and finishing options (including furniture-grade)
Custom moldings beginning from a CAD drawing or product sample
Custom turning with manual and automatic lathes
Custom boxes with the ideal dimensions and appearance for your brand
Contact E.W. Hannas for Your Custom Woodworking Needs Today
Looking for a partner for your custom woodworking project? E.W. Hannas is here to help! Companies have turned to us for their woodworking needs since 1918 when we set up shop in Manhattan. We now boast the strongest consortium of wood manufacturing plants in the world, which enables us to deliver high-quality wood parts and products for a diverse range of industries and applications.
Most of our products are available in both standard and custom sizes, with further customizations available depending on the item. We also offer container and pallet rates to keep prices affordable and blanket orders for customers requiring a consistent supply. Whatever your project, we are dedicated to making woodwork for you.
Contact us today to learn more about our product capabilities or discuss your project specifications with one of our team members.
At its simplest, a flag offers a means to display an idea or a message to the world. Many people fly flags to represent their sports team affiliations or other fandoms. Other flags get displayed in support of charitable or political causes. And of course, state and national flags typically signal pride or patriotism. Many flags also tell a story. For example, each of the 50 stars in the American flag represents one of the nation’s 50 states, and each of the 13 stripes stands for one of the original 13 colonies that created the United States.
What are the Parts of a Flag Called?
Header. This heavy fabric runs along the flag’s inside edge to reinforce its connection to a flagpole.
Grommets. Usually made from brass or steel, these metal rings reinforce the holes found in a flag’s header.
Field or ground.The flag’s field, sometimes called a ground, refers to all fabric between the fly and the hoist.
Canton. The canton houses a specific flag design element. For instance, in the American flag, the canton includes the blue field with the 50 white stars.
Fly end. The fly end of a flag is the loose end that blows and flaps in the wind.
Fly. The fly is the length of a flag from the header to the fly end.
Hoist end. The hoist end refers to the flag’s side that includes the header and grommets and attaches to the flag pole.
What are the Flag Structures?
Here are the three most common flag structures:
Single-sided flag. The design of a single-sided flag is only printed on one side and doesn’t show through on the other side.
Single/reverse flag. A single/reverse flag has the design printed on one side, but a reverse image of the design shows on the other side of the flag. This method is most common for making affordable flags.
Double-sided flag. A double-sided flag tends to be of higher quality, with the design displayed prominently on both sides without bleeding through to each other. A double-sided flag is created by sewing two single-sided fabric prints together into a heavier, durable piece of unified fabric. While more costly, these flags are ideal for exposure to wind and weather.
What High-Quality Flag Parts Can We Provide?
E.W. Hannas provides a variety of high-quality flag parts:
Flag sticks
Flag poles
Finials
Bases
Brackets
Eyelets/grommets
Two-piece flag poles
E.W. Hannas has been a leading supplier of wood flag parts to the largest American flag manufacturers since the 1940s, without interruption. We have hundreds of dedicated workers who provide unparalleled consistency and commitment to this industry alone. Let our efficiency and quality add value to your finished product, with a timely and reliable team that always stays focused on flags. We stay ahead of the curve with production in numerous regions, and our products are 100% Made in America.
Contact us today to speak with one of our knowledgeable salespeople for a quote.
