This is a strange instrument – like a blunt hooked brass knife. It is called a strigil and similar tools would have been used by ancient Romans to scrape dirt and sweat from their bodies. Most Romans would have bathed in a public bathhouse – only the very rich had a bathroom in their own home. The Romans did not use soap. Instead, perfumed oil would be rubbed onto the body and then scraped off with the strigil, removing any dead skin, sweat and dirt.  This normally happened in the hot room of the baths (like a sauna). For wealthier people this was cleansing was done for them by slaves. 

This replica has been based on various military and civilian finds throughout the Roman Empire, including those at Caerleon and Silchester in Britain.  

We don’t really use anything quite like the strigil today – our bath accessories tend to be softer.  It feels quite pleasant to glide the curved blade over the body and like medical equipment today, the metal material can be boiled clean so the strigil would have been quite hygienic for shared use.