Wax cylinder working after century, some hope? (6)
I believe the answer is:
crayon
'wax cylinder' is the definition.
(I've seen this in another clue)
'working after century some hope?' is the wordplay.
'working' becomes 'on' (on can mean working or activated).
'after' means one lot of letters go next to another.
'century' becomes 'C' (common abbreviation).
'some hope?' becomes 'ray' (as in a ray of hope).
'c'+'ray'='cray'
'on' after 'cray' is 'CRAYON'.
(Other definitions for crayon that I've seen before include "Drawing-stick" , "One colours with this" , "Cyrano (anag)" , "(Draw with) a coloured stick" , "Stick to colour" .)