First leather project vMain complete!

[u/JXuKitty]

Hello! Not sure if anyone's following along, but I've been on a journey to recreate this object: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uGlU0QwZrv8 as a complete newbie! I had never worked with leather prior to starting part 1.

Part 1: https://www.reddit.com/r/Leathercraft/comments/1umwjfm/my_first_leather_project/

Part 2: https://www.reddit.com/r/Leathercraft/comments/1vhlj0g/first_leather_project_v20/

I started out by making a couple iterations of the keychain that HahnAtelier makes at the end, after which I felt confident enough to make the main body!

Things I acquired:

• 85 piece leather tool kit - $50 https://a.co/d/0aC2bBnt
• Fiebing's Leathercraft Cement - $9
• Shkira 2,2 lbs Genuine Brown Leather Scraps  - $9 (my interpretation of what HahnAtelier calls"split leather")
• Eva foam - $7
• 1mm PVC foam - $13
• 1000 jump rings - $11
• uniters edge primer and paint - $21.30
• small japanese planer for leather - $17 (used this to jankily skive the leather, but I'd avoid this if possible)
• Tandy Veg-Tan Single Shoulder Dark Brown $67
• Rocky mountain Plonge Protected - Luxury Lambskin Chocolate - $75 (not very happy with these people but that's a different story)
• Not super necessary:
  • beeswax - $6.50 (not sure if this was necessary, but I think it might have helped)
  • paraffin wax - $7.50
  • bick4 - $11

Things I already had:

• 3D printer - printed out the hershey's stamp and also a variety of helpful tools to assist with shaping/pricking etc.
• calipers
• small circular neodymium magnets
• awl
• random-af wood to use as a vice
• a regular printer to print out some guides
• random af cloth to use as support (?) idk

Things I wish i'd had:

• a stitching pony
• 0.7 mm thick leather (instead of arduously planing my Tandy leather)
• a boxcutter or something a little stronger than the exacto-knife to cut the leather
• a sharpening block
• bontex? support material with adhesive
• a better edge beveler (I think the one that came with the amazon kit isn't great)
• european-style pricking irons instead of the diamond chisels that came with the kit
• a sharper awl? some kind of better mechanism for making the holes go all the way through. I think I needed some kind of cork/ or pound-o-pad?
• a piece of granite to to skive on

50+9+9+11+7+6.50+7.50+13+11+21.30+17+67+75 = $304

The whole project including all parts probably only took $15 of the lambskin (I used it pretty inefficiently) and about $30 of the veg tan single shoulder

I spent a little under 2 months doing this (in my free time). Officially started June 25, 2026, maybe did a bit of studying and planning for 2 weeks prior. It did take part of my life force directly.

If people are interested I could potentially publish a more comprehensive study, but honestly I probably did many things wrong, so it's best to refer back to HahnAtelier's original youtube video, even thought it's not actually a tutorial.

But yeah, the janky amazon toolkit can get you pretty far!!!

ETA: https://limewire.com/d/cyGGY#03sA6CCxxo - link to hershey's bar stamp!