Hawk (aka Mortarboard)

[Slava]

From Wikipedia:

A hawk is a plasterer's tool. It consists of a board about 25 cm (9 inches) square with a perpendicular handle fixed centrally on the reverse.

It holds the mixed working plaster and is held horizontally in the craftsman's non-dominant hand while the dominant hand uses a float (flat board with a handle) to apply the wet plaster to the wall and produce a smooth finish.

Brick pointers use a hawk to hold mortar while they work.

- Quote - Shakespeare Hamlet,II,ii (1600), Hamlet says: 'I am but mad north-north-west: when the wind is southerly I know a hawk from a handsaw'. That is 'I know one thing from another'.
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From the similarity in appearance we get to mortarboard, the cap graduates wear for a few minutes.

[skinem]

I'm glad you explained this, because I was trying to figure out from the title what a bird had to do with the hat worn at graduations...

I've used a mortarboard, but, we called it just that. Or "that thing there"...