My first guess was drum sticks for the Ondikoza drummers... but as I remember theirs were more like little bats than fancy sticks... they drum hard enough that the tend to break their sticks occasionally...
I've made a few of them myself -- my mom is into making bobbin lace. I get brownie points every time she is able to tell her friends her bobbins were made by her son
Though my mom likes to have holes drilled near the bottom to put in a "spangle". She says the extra weight is useful when making the lace.