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[John Ousterhout]

I've always thought of the second hole being for a brad.  In any case the purpose would be to prevent rotation.  Removing the screw would allow the gidgie to rotate about the brad/pin/whatever.  The wear marks around the screw hole may be from repeated removal, which implies occasional need to do what?  Adjust something?  Remove something?
I find it curious that the teeth don't appear to be bent.  If they were supposed to hold something down, like a claw, then I would expect them to be bent slightly.
They remind me of a picture-frame hanger, except they're too small and the teeth are spaced wrong.  The hanger I'm reminded of engages a nail in a wall, the teeth allowing repositioning left and right to get it to hang straight.
Intriguing indeed.

[Roger London]

These two brackets/gidgies appear to have been screwed to wood, it follows, given their size, the wood would have been significantly larger thus offer positive buoyancy and facilitating their dispersion across the lagoon. It is therefore very possible that these brackets/gidgies came from the Norwich City.
Looking for a likely use on a freighter could focus the source-search. Laundry room, drying rack, crockery storage shelving/racking, etc. They do not look as though they were originally high quality, thus less likely to have been associated with anything in, or from, chart/navigation/radio/bridge room equipment.
A superb project, Roger

[Joe Cerniglia]

These two brackets/gidgies appear to have been screwed to wood, it follows, given their size, the wood would have been significantly larger thus offer positive buoyancy and facilitating their dispersion across the lagoon. It is therefore very possible that these brackets/gidgies came from the Norwich City.

It's possible, but previous analysis on EPAC didn't seem to point in the direction of the Norwich City, a British-built freighter.  In 2002, A British researcher observed the gidgies appear American in origin.

"The nature of the plates make it virtually certain that they
were amateur made and used American screws...

The thicknesses are reasonably consistent with an American origin, either
Brown and Sharpe gages or "preferred thickness" gages. The thicknesses do
not tie in so well with a British origin as this would mean an SWG (Standard
wire gauge) thickness which lies in both cases just outside the maximum and
minimum thicknesses. It has to be said that the variation in thickness over
the plate makes a nominal thickness difficult to be certain of or even if it
is relevant, but ... The American gage (B & S) of the plates would be 17 (0.0453) and 19 (0.0359) .
Equivalent preferred thickness would be 0.036 and 0.045."

He suggested the LORAN station as one probable source but neither did he rule out the hypothesis that it was for a modification to a sextant box.

Joe Cerniglia
TIGHAR #3078C

[Roger London]

Yes agreed Joe, the gidgies appear to be US made. Or Canadian? Thus pointing to when the Norwich City was repaired locally after her bridge collision near Vancouver. The masts and funnel were smashed, along with bridge damage. The accident pictures, whilst good, do not clearly show what damage may have occurred below decks especially when the masts were smashed.
A brilliant project, Roger

[JNev]

The gidgies are aluminum and hand-crafted.  That does not seem like shipboard fare to me.

Hand-crafted may be 'amateur' - or the work of a craftsman with limited time and resources.

Other than having American screws and possibly American gage material, I couldn't begin to assume with any reliability that they are American (or Canadian) made, and obviously I personally don't see the N.C. connection anyway.

The sextant box modification seems plausible as a line of pursuit - however one can pursue it without the box.  Same for these things turning up as a make-do do-dad for the interior of NR16020 if it could only be found so (maybe will surface in a picture one day that happens to capture some odd detail with these in it.  Maybe they were meant to retain soft goods in the cockpit or cabin somehow.  The Cabin had an expanse of what appears to have been wood decking.

Other than those guesses, it seems like a big, fat... guess, for now.

[Roger London]

In addition to the various uses others have suggested, the gidgies, wherever they came from, whilst still attached to a piece of timber batten, would have made a wonderful crab-killer or crab-deflector. In particular whilst laid prone sleeping such an armament would have been very effective meted out with venom when attacked. Once too weak to move however, these gidgies might have been a very sad cutting-last-stand against the crabs’ war of attrition.
A brilliant project, Roger

[JNev]

They'd make good back-scratchers, too.

[Matt Revington]

This artifact has puzzled me for a long time.  The Luke field inventory lists AE's radio headphones as model WE 588A which I have not been able to find a picture of online but I did find WE 528 headphones (that I hope are similar) for sale on eBay, I have attached a photo from that ad.  The hook on the incoming wires to the headphone goes through a part that seems to me to be very similar to 2-6-S-03B.  (edit) I added a second copy with an arrow indicating what I am talking about.

[Martin X. Moleski, SJ]

The hook on the incoming wires to the headphone goes through a part that seems to me to be very similar to 2-6-S-03B.

That is one of the best guesses I've ever seen.

Even if it isn't the actual source of the "gidgies," it may show the kind of application they may have come from.

I've moved your post down to this thread for the sake of continuity.

[Ric Gillespie]

Bear in mind that the screws are wood screws and the aluminum pieces are not manufactured but are crudely fashioned.  These things were make-shift homemade additions or modifications to a wooden object.  My guess has always been that they are from rotatable wooden "keepers" Noonan installed in the sextant box.  Earhart, as a castaway, was using the box to carry stuff and she ripped out keepers because they were in the way - bending one of them in the process.  The wooden blocks they were originally attached to eventually rotted away leaving only the aluminum plates and brass screws.

[Matt Revington]

Wood screws don't have to mean wood was used, I assume the cup of those earphones were bakelite, if you google "wood screws and bakelite" you get links to a host of articles from Popular Mechanics and Popular Science from the 1920s and 1930s which outline how to build different types of radios etc, in almost every case they suggest that the bakelite parts be attached using wood screws  after drilling an initial pilot hole. 
However, Ric, I admit your idea makes more sense.  I cannot picture a reason why AE or FN would have taken the headphones from the plane and if they had why would they have dismantled it and why was no bakelite and other headphone parts found at the 7 site with the gidgies.