Raualduke, thanks. Holding your popsicle stick flat against your work bench, then using a box cutter with a fresh blade, should see after repeated downward strokes random grooves being cut that the blade tends to follow. These will be the splintering that you see on my fence. Severe splintering can be portrayed by shaving down some of the sides of the sticks. For weathering, I use a wash of black oil paint from a tube, diluted with odorless turpentine, which will tend to congregate into the cracks. If you need to increase the shadows and depth, follow the oil wash after it has dried, with black pigment powder brushed into the crack, then dusted of excess. Raualduke, an old wood fence running through a static grass field can in itself be an interesting subject.