otaypanky

I don't know if you noticed it on his website Diesel but he has a tutorial posted on using petal lifters along with a few other tutorials. He's quite a talented guy from what I can see of his work posted on his site. He does inlay work as well as leatherwork ~ https://greyghostgraphics.com/jeff-mosby-leather-and-inlay-work/

Another source is Gray Ghost Graphics. https://greyghostgraphics.com/custom-leather-maker-stamps/ They're made from DELRIN and are extremely durable and affordable. Jeff made a couple for me 17 years ago and they're still going strong after lots of use.

I made those a long time ago and actually do most every operation differently now. I try and learn something from each item I make. The leather itself is a good teacher if you keep an open mind and are willing to experiment and try new things and new ways of doing things. Even my workspace has evolved. I relocated and now have a proper workshop. I have one 2' x 6' bench for cutting, assembly, and carving, another 2' x 6' bench for dyeing and conditioning or anything that involves liquids so my other station stays clean from stains. And a 4' x 8' table for rolling out sides and doing things requiring a lot of room. It's set up like a galley kitchen so all I have to do is turn around to work on the other workbench.

I used to enjoy rod building as well. I kind of miss having sold my lathe a few years back. I have to agree with Andrew, I just don't see leather and rods coming together in a way that makes sense. Wet leather might just be one of the most slippery things on the planet. And the water would be the undoing of any tooling or carving. What came to mind for me when thinking about how to combine leather and a fishing rod is not using it in the rod but a decorative rod storage rack. Maybe something made of wood with leather trim, a carved vignette of a bass coming through some milfoil? When I did rods I used to enjoy using rosewood or walnut for the reel seats and to and make wood spacers to inlay in the cork handles. I bordered the wood with thin black/white/black spacers I cut from plastic sheet and laminated together. The thread work was a lot of fun too ~

In my experience, bridle is not well suited for carving. It's infused with extra fats, tallows, and waxes. Veg tanned is processed specifically to kind of harden and hold the tooling if it's been cased correctly