A plastic rule not unlike the Sterling Deluxe Mannheim, and it's every bit as deluxe as that one. According to the name scratched into the back, it previously belonged to one C. W. Shelton, so you can always ask C. W. if you want to know more about it. I think C. W. must've spent an awful lot of time in a boring class, scratching letters into the back of the rule with a pencil, because it's pretty deeply gouged. I've been in classes like that.