Possible Clues:

• Hide sticker about Civil War displays
• What a bore that that's the 8 down sound!
• Belt stabber
• Shoemaker's hole punch
• One sounds nothing but a bore
• What a bore to make 17 across sound!
• Rule left to the last — it's boring
• That sounds like nothing but a bore, and it makes the whole of it, by the sound of it
• What makes a hole with the sound of a whole
• Shout one's head off - it may be piercing