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' (e.g. a machine is working or on).
'after' says to put letters next to each other.
'century' becomes 'C' (common abbreviation).
'some hope?' becomes 'ray' (as in a ray of hope).
'c'+'ray'='cray'
'on' put 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" .)