Slip Strop

A slip strop is a small, hand-held strop used for sharpening fine edges of carving tools. Typically made of leather or a similar abrasive surface with a backing, it’s compact and often shaped to hug your finger or palm. The key feature of a slip strop is that it can get into tight spots and curves, polishing the inside bevels as well as the outside edge.

Beginners find slip strops useful because they are easy to use and portable. After honing with stones or larger strops, you can quickly touch up the edge anywhere, even mid-project. If you have a curved gouge or hook knife, the slip strop helps polish the inside of the curve, maintaining a razor-sharp burr without removing material. This makes it great for quick maintenance: instead of sharpening a gouge on a bench stone, you press it into the slip strop and polish away small nicks.

At BeaverCraft, we offer traditional leather paddle strops (like our LS5P1 designed for hook knives and gouges), but for really tight inside cuts you might use a slip strop. The concept is the same: polish the edge. Our LS5P1 is «tailored to the unique curved profiles of hook knives, spoon carving tools, and gouges», just like a slip strop. So while we may not sell the slip-strop-shaped tool directly, our leather strops serve the same role on hook blades. Beginners can use a BeaverCraft leather paddle or even a fine abrasive towel in place of a flexcut slip strop to hone inside curves.