Hi, Alexander!  Recently you wrote in a message to All:   
      
   ak>  When you chop a log with an axe, to make fuel for   
   ak>  your fireplace or a furnace, what do you get as a   
   ak>  result? Chips? If our axe split a piece of wood 40   
   ak>  centimeters long, can we call it a chip, too? Or   
   ak>  it will be a stick?   
      
      
              Let's see... 40 cm/2.54 = 15.75 inches.  Sounds like what my father   
   used to describe as a stove length.  The firebox in ye olde wood-burning stove   
   is/was IIRC typically sixteen inches long.  I know from experience that if you   
   always cut your wood to fit this type of stove it will fit nicely into a wood-   
   burning space heater or fireplace... in this part of the world at least... and   
   will fit nicely into campground firepits in BC, Alberta, Washington State, and   
   Oregon.  On the rare occasions when I've used wood supplied by a campground it   
   has been cut the same way.  The length is so standard around here, apparently,   
   that it's more or less taken for granted & very seldom mentioned by name.  :-)   
      
              My CANADIAN OXFORD DICTIONARY defines a "stick" as a "short slender   
   branch of wood broken or cut from a tree".  Around these parts the majority of   
   trees used for firewood are less than a century old & probably less than 30 cm   
   in diameter.  Typically they're trees which have fallen down in a storm or old   
   fruit trees which have outlived their productive years.  YMMV depending on the   
   latitude & the rainfall where you live, on what varieties of trees grow there,   
   and on whether or not an entire forest was clear-cut at some time in the past.   
      
              Some farmers keep a "wood lot" stocked with fast-growing trees too.   
   But the bottom line is that the "firewood" I'm used to is obtained mostly from   
   logs which have been cut into stove lengths & then split into four pieces.  If   
   you need kindling & don't have enough small branches or twigs available, it is   
   possible to split off a few slivers &/or chips.  This may occur inadvertently,   
   and with neophytes it often does.  It can also be done quite deliberately.   
      
              AFAIC, a chip is <= the size of one mouthful.  If USAians prefer to   
   cut potato chips crosswise, while Brits cut them lengthwise, it doesn't matter   
   for purposes of this discussion... [chuckle].   
      
              Now, back to the dictionary definition of "stick".  I would put the   
   emphasis on the word "slender" because many of the things I'm about to cite as   
   examples aren't necessarily made of wood, especially these days:   
      
      
               drum stick    -- a tool used by players of percussion instruments   
               drumstick     -- the leg of some domestic fowl such as chicken or   
                                turkey, much beloved by children & by others who   
                                have difficulty cutting food with a knife & fork   
      
   These terms may be spelled the same way in USAian English, but as a Canadian I   
   use Canadian spellings.  Mark can tell you about USAian spellings....  ;-)   
      
      
               chopsticks    -- what people from southeast Asia often use to eat   
                                their food.  Two chopsticks are held in one hand   
                                and the diameter is roughly that of a pencil.   
      
               candlestick   -- what Jack jumped over in a nursery rhyme I heard   
                                as a kid.  In my experience, candles are usually   
                                made of paraffin wax or beeswax... but I see the   
                                parallel there.  The average specimen can easily   
                                be picked up with a thumb & two fingers....  :-)   
      
               hockey stick  -- I've seen hockey players of various ages, shapes,   
                                and sizes hold their sticks with a bit of overlap   
                                between the fingers & thumb.  These things aren't   
                                circular... like unsplit logs or tree branches...   
                                but neither is firewood consisting of scraps left   
                                over from a construction project.  In general I'd   
                                describe a piece of firewood simply as a piece of   
                                firewood if it's small enough to fit a cookstove,   
                                but too large to pick up as I've described above.   
      
   Other examples:   
      
               Broomstick, dipstick, joystick, lipstick, swizzle stick.   
      
      
              I hope this (rather long-winded) explanation is of some help.  :-))   
      
      
      
      
   --- timEd/386 1.10.y2k+   
    * Origin: Wits' End, Vancouver CANADA (1:153/716)