What man-made objects are referred to by the material they are made of?

Factual Questions
1

An example would be an iron…it is made of iron and you use it to flatten wrinkles in clothes. Or a glass, made of glass and used to drink from, or glasses, made of glass and used to correct vision. A steel is used to sharpen knives. A straw for drinking from used to be made of straw, although new ones are all plastic. A cloth is a marginal example, since it could be used for all sorts of things. Clothes could also work, since it is derived from the word “cloth”. The silver would be silver objects used for tableware. A flint can be used to strike a spark. Marbles used to be made of marble, although most are now glass.

What other examples can you all come up with?

2

How about a quill, for writing, and also because it’s a quill feather?

3

Condoms are referred to as “rubbers”, although now they’re made of latex.

4

A vinyl is made of vinyl and is used to listen to music, golfclub names as well I guess were what they were traditionally made from.

5

Nickles are made of, well, nickel.

Silver (as in silverware) is made of silver.

6

It’s slang, but credit cards are referred to as “plastic.”

7

They are also referred to as “skins” because they were originaly (and I think maybe still are available) made of lambs skin.

8

I was confused when I first bought something in a supermarket in the US, and was asked “Paper or plastic”, since I thought the question was whether I would be using paper money or plastic money (i.e., a credit card), and didn’t realise until later that the choice was between different kinds of bags.

9

Nylons, tho’ they often have a bit of Lycra today.

10

Fishsticks?

11

Golf clubs originally were called “woods” and “irons”.

A report is often referred to as a “paper”.

Baseballs were called “the old horsehide” and footballs were “pigskin” although I don’t believe either is technically true anymore.

12

Brick, as in “a brick wall” and “a brick went through my windshield”?

Is the explosive Plastique really made out of something that could be considered plastic? If so, that would be another one.

13

A cork.

14

Iron (for pressing clothes, made from iron)
Eiderdown (bedcover, stuffed with eider down)

15

Linens, which refers either to household tablecloths and napery or to ecclesiastical altar coverings and the like, and in either case references things made of linen fabric.

Nickels, by the way, are no longer made of that metal.

A small forest is a wood or woods.

There are areas where a small lake or large pond is referred to as a water, particularly as a part of its proper name.

It’s been my experience that in the indefinite or plural one refers to one or more bars of soap, but in the definite it’s most common to reference it as “the soap.”

A marker, as of a grave, a boundary, or other desiredly-durable nature, which is made of granite, marble, sandstone, etc., is nearly always referenced as a stone. This is distinct from the usage where a large pebble or small cobble is also a stone.

The garb worn by jockeys in horseraces to enable easy distinction between them is their silks.

Very obsolescent now, but still clear enough to anyone encountering the word, is the description of greaves, vambraces, chaps, etc., made of leather and worn for protective purposes, as leathers.

There’s a near-miss worth preserving. In the days before photocopiers, xerographic copiers, and the like, the means of making a second or additional copy of that which you were typing, on a typewriter, was to create a sandwich where the top and bottom were plain blank white paper and what lay between them, face down, was a sheet of thin paper which had been coated with a dried suspension of fine carbon dust, called “carbon paper.” When this complex was inserted into a typewriter’s platen and you proceeded to type on the top sheet, the impact of the keys would dislodge carbon dust in the shape of the letter typed from the carbon paper and lodge it on the blank bottom sheet, which was in consequence called a carbon, or carbon copy.

Another near miss is the use of tin to describe a metal can usually used for food storage, either by having an airtight lid or by being a sealed canister containing canned food. In this case, the can is made of iron, but the reference is to the tin coating that covers the entire exterior and interior surface to prevent oxidation.

16

Rubbers also refers to galoshes, rain boots if you will. But, really only the particular kind that are totally made out of rubber.

In the old days, the Polish-Americans were primarily employed to hold up lanterns on the sidewalk, so that others could see. Hence, early poles were made from actual Poles. That’s no longer the case.

17

Curling stones are called stones or rocks.

18

All man-made elements. And I guess a lot of man-made chemicals.

Didn’t gum actually used to be made of gum, like gum from a tree?

I’m pretty sure I’ve heard chalkboards referred to as slates.

19

Don’t motorcyclists still wear leathers?

20

canvas - used for painting

Does “film” count as a material? It also refers to movies.