File:Possible nail cleaner (FindID 110779).jpg

English: An incomplete copper-alloy possible late Roman nail cleaner, 47.4mm in length and 9.5mm in width. Both terminals of the object are now missing due to old breaks. One terminal has the lower fragment of a suspension loop surviving, which is set at right angles to the plane of the object. This upper part of the blade is triangular in shape, 10mm in length and 6mm in width and tapers towards the narrowest waisted part of the object which has a double cusp, which is the shape of two Cs back to back. Below this the rest of the blade is lozenge-shaped as its flares outwards again to a width of 9.5mm before tapering in again.

  The front face is decorated with one stamped ring and dot motif above the waisted part and a longitudinal row of ring and dot motifs run down the centre of the blade below this, there are two extra parallel ring and dot motifs between the third and fourth longitudinally aligned motifs.  There is also an incised border groove around the front face of the blade below the waisted area.
 

 
   No parallel could be found for this possibly nail cleaner but it is similar to examples classified by Crummy as late 4th century types, these examples also often have ring and dot decoration and notches and the loop can be on the same plane as the blade or at right angles, as it is with this example (Crummy 2001, 6, fig 5).  
 

 

The only other likely alternative function of this object is perhaps as an early Anglo-Saxon girdle hanger, the fragmentary loop is similar to those found on girdle hangers, however not enough of the object survives to suggest this identification with any certainty.