Stick

Sticks are created by placing two wooden planks in a crafting square, one above the other. 32 wooden planks or 8 wood blocks will create a full stack of sticks.

Uses
Sticks are used primarily as the handles for tools, torches, and weapons. They can also be used as the shaft of arrows, the post for signs, to place portals in Multiplayer or the ties of rails. Sticks are the only building material required to craft a fence or ladder.

Sticks can also be used as a fuel source for furnaces. Though they are renewable, sticks are a less efficient fuel than wooden planks, and require 2 sticks to be burned per furnace operation. Sticks are recommended for short jobs, like cooking pork, or if just a little more fuel is required to complete the current operation, and it would not complete otherwise. Note that it takes 3 sticks to be equal to a wooden plank being smelted. It is not recommended to smelt sticks if they have just been crafted, since the two planks used can burn for 30 seconds (three smelting operations), while the four sticks created burn for 20 seconds (two smelting operations).

When making ladders you can(with a stack of 64) place 9 in each slot in the required pattern and have 1 left over.

Trivia

 * Sticks were one of the first craftable items available in Minecraft. Their only use at the time was forming the handle of a pickaxe, axe or shovel.
 * The name "Stick" seems to be the only difference between the Canadian and American English. In Canadian, its name is "Stick, Ay."

Future

 * In 12w06a, the stick is renamed to 'rod'
 * Check your language settings; you're probably not using US English.

Stock Stick/es Bâton Bot Stok Patyk pt-br:Stick Палка Stick/ch