What is This?

 Sometimes traveling across Russia can yield the things I bet most modern people have never seen before. Like this wooden thing in the hands of an Old Believer priest. Aksan, the photographer has taken a few photos of this thing, can you guess what this is at all?
We have more clear photos of it inside and also an answer if you scroll down to the bottom. But please don’t scroll at first, try to figure it out yourself!

So here is the thing.

A close up.

And Aksan holding it.

There were some wild guesses on what it is. Some even thought its a key from a church, but it is not. Some thought it was a sort of a rod or a religious wand, some people supposed the priest uses it to hit the bells to make them ring.

But actually the answer is much simpler. This is a template, or a sort of a ruler that old carpenters used to make those nice old antique looking wooden parts of the windows in Russian villages.Like this one:

Pass it on! And thanks to Aksan for the photos.