Strigil replicas

[Hildebrandt]

I recently had an opportunity to create two Roman strigil replicas which I though might be of interest to the community here. The one in the foreground is made of 18 gauge commercial bronze (a low-zinc brass, despite its name) and the one in the background from 20 gauge phosphor bronze. They are remarkably rigid due to their structure and from being worked from hard stock without annealing. Both are 21cm long.





I am always happy to answer questions.

[P Sertorius Scaevola]

Nice smooth finish and a great look. You mark them as replica's; could you show us the original too, would be nice to see them line up. And the question obviously next is; how will they be priced?

[Doc]

Those are excellent. The only thing that I would do is remove the mirror shine since I doubt they would have been. I am not saying that they could not be shiny (natural sheen of the metal) or that the Romans could not achieve a mirror shine since the Romans had mirrors made of metal that had....well.....a mirror shine.
However for an item such as this, I doubt it.

All that would be required is a once over with steel wool. Not a real task.

[Hildebrandt]

Thank you both for your compliments. Perhaps I have used the wrong term in labeling them "replicas" - neither is a copy of an extant piece, if that is what you mean. They were made to the specifications of my client. I have attached an image of a very similar original from Pompeii, albeit a decorated one. I will be happy to make other strigils based exactly on originals.



I do not know what degree of finish would have been used. Considering that even the hammer marks from the inside 'spoon' of original strigils have been sanded out, I did not think a high polish would have been much more work, though. Polishing bronze using ancient techniques is easy, after all. Keeping it polished required regular maintenance though, so I doubt steel wool will be necessary to matte these down - just use should be enough.

As for pricing, the strigil in the foreground of my original post has been sold for CDN$100. I offered it for less, but my customer thought my price too low. No complaints here! They should start at about CDN$70 and get more expensive with decoration. I would like to make some with ribbed blades and/or decorated handles, if anyone is interested.

[Doc]

The decorated one is really nice. It is true they removed the dings from hammer marks. The issue is not if they were able
to polish it, the issue is would something this simple be polished to a mirror finish.
In the Roman period, I agree that a wiping would do to maintain the item.

I am not sure how many times you would use a strigil in reenactment so I think it would be safer to have a duller finish that would resemble the
natural sheen of the metal.

[Hildebrandt]

I think it would be safer to have a duller finish that would resemble the
natural sheen of the metal.

Less work for me, too. :-)

[Rado]

Excellent finished product!