Don't know about a modern use - my dad nailed a wooden spool onto screen doors and utility doors etc., at just the right height for me to open without adult assistance when I was a child. I still have fond memories of grabbing the spool to get indoors. Now I have boxes of them and no heart to throw them away. The schools get the plastic ones.
I had a French knitting set-up with one of them. Four nails were around the spindle hole and the yarn went through the centre.