Pieces of wood used for stirring salts (5)

I believe the answer is:

slats

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'pieces of wood used for' is the definition.
The answer and definition can be both man-made objects as well as being plural nouns.
Maybe you can see an association between them that I can't see?

'stirring salts' is the wordplay.
'stirring' indicates an anagram.
'salts' is an anagram of 'SLATS'.

Can you help me to learn more?

(Another definition for slats that I've seen is " Thin strips of wood or metal".)

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