Points degrees of quality out, in weapons (8)
I believe the answer is:
grenades
'weapons' is the definition.
The answer and definition can be both man-made objects as well as being plural nouns.
Perhaps there's an association between them I don't understand?
'points degrees of quality out' is the wordplay.
'points' becomes 'en' (compass points east and north).
'degrees of quality' becomes 'grades' (I can't justify this - if you can you should give a lot more credence to this answer).
'out' indicates putting letters inside.
'en' put into 'grades' is 'GRENADES'.
'in' acts as a link.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for grenades that I've seen before include "Hand-held explosives" , "Small bombs thrown by hand" , "Small explosive hand-bomb" , "Small hand-bombs" , "Hand-thrown bombs for grandees" .)