Missed picking this nit earlier: standard ceiling height in most U.S. residences is 8 feet, not 7.
IIRC the mob boss used the towel full of oranges because it didn’t leave marks.
Can you swing a sack of doorknobs?
Hairspray sprayed in the eyes, maybe.
My evil dad told me the folks at the orphanage where he spent most of his childhood preferred to beat kids with a rubber hose, because it wouldn’t leave marks.
I stand by my “hot sauce” answer.
Aaah, you’re right, opposite of what the OP was looking for.
Rubber dildo or a sock with a pool ball in it.
In the same vein as the wooden spoons are bamboo back-scratchers and shoe horns. A little bit longer than a wooden spoon and possibly narrower. And bamboo is quite strong.
And I don’t believe anyone’s mentioned those acrylic/lucite rods that are often used to control window blinds. Very narrow and somewhat flexible, almost like a cane.
Jumper cables.
A straight razor.
Fireplace tools (poker, shovel, etc.)
Phone cords are quite rare these days.
Cables running from DVD players/game stations are still faintly common, however. That might be a good one for the OP.
Ok, the guy is supposed to get HDMI cable to connect a computer to a TV, but gets a DVI cable instead. Beating ensues with DVI cable.
See, I’ve also given you a plot!
Maybe a kid left one of those skinny, yellow, wiffle-ball bats laying around? Fat Albert bat too?
Wow. Just like in the Bourne books: Everything’s a weapon.
Shedding blade, one with two leather handles.
The leather handles hurt if you get hit with one and the blade has teeth on one side.
How about a good rolling pin?
jigsaw
A scythe.
Doesn’t everyone have a scythe lying around the house?
Wow, that took off.
Ok, the beating specifically needs to be a beating, with an implement of some sort, so all the acid/polish remover/cleaning fluids in the face/eyes is lovely for later, but not this specific incident.
Same for the straight razor - it’s a fit of anger, not a deliberate maiming/torture. That happens later.
Liking the Window-blind control rod - that’s very evocative.
Wooden spoons or spatulas are unlikely to draw blood/raised weals/welts at the timing and intensity I’m looking at. They’re also a bit small and a bit expected (also very associated with spanking children here, and that is an association I want to avoid.)
Rolling pin might work, but seems a little awkward. Also it seems to me like you could really cause actual long-term damage more easily with something heavy like a rolling pin. I’m ideally thinking of something with a good bit of reach to it, but that the nature of the implement is what moderates the damage, as the assailant isn’t in a frame of mind to do so themselves.
What is a shedding blade?
No scythes in the house, sadly.
However, there would be a phone line - old house, oldfashioned resident. Ripping it out of the wallsocket would also make the phone inoperable, which could help later in the plot.
The location is an old dependency, so it has lower ceilings, I just assumed that height was also a standard.
Thanks so much for the continued ideas, this is oddly fun to read through and think about.
Death is so careless with his tools.