First Carving for Grandsons Fly rod case

That's very nice! I like the asymettry and the bold design.

This is incredible workmanship! I envy your talent. I've been wondering how to begin doing tooling, but am half afraid of ruining a piece. I suppose I'll just have to jump in to it. Any advice you can throw a young fellow?

put your thoughts together, think it through. take your time. draw it out on paper of your design. transfer your design over to your leather but practise all this on a scrap piece of leather ,carving, tooling, modeling, staining dyeing etc. before your final go ahead. you can also try your carving on apiece of flat modeling clay or putty. make sure you clean your tools after before you go to the leather carving.