File:Copper alloy Roman nail cleaner (FindID 138898).jpg

English: Almost complete cast copper alloy Baldock-type Roman nail-cleaner (Crummy Type 2a).The blade, flat in section, has distinct sloping shoulders that then taper inwards into the elongated narrow blade. The blade terminates in a fork, with two distinctive triangular points, set slightly wider than the end of the blade. Extending from the top of the blade is the elongated narrow neck, rectangular in section. This is damaged at the tip and there is no suspension loop. The damaged end does not appear to curve in any direction, suggesting that the loop was set much higher on the already considerable length of the neck, or that it did not exist. Crummy (2003, Nail Cleaners in Roman Britain, The Archaeological Journal 160, page 51) suggests that a cleaner from Verulamium, also lacking a suspension loop, may be an incomplete production example. However, it is also noted that in that case, corrosion may also be obscuring further information.

The nail cleaner is abraded but the blade appears to be undecorated except for a central, vertical incised line on one face of the blade, and less distinctly on the opposite. The neck is decorated with two moulded bands at its base and one below the point of damage at the tip, all three being much worn. The damaged end is worn suggesting damage occurred in antiquity. The object has a brown patina with small areas of damage exposing mid green surfaces.The nail cleaner is 40.38mm long, 6.86mm wide at the shoulders, 2.74mm wide at the neck, 1.44mm wide and weighs 1.55g.

An example of a Type 2a nail cleaner can be seen in N. Crummy 1983, 'The Roman small finds from excavations in Colchester 1971-9,' figure 62, number 1874. Baldock type nail cleaners are discussed at length in Crummy 2003 (as above). Nail cleaners of this type date from the first and second centuries.