Reddit reviews Passion Junetree Stitching Awl with Diamond Shape Blade

To make leather armour, you will definitely need:

• A good knife; either break-away box cutter or rotary cutter
  
• A ruler or straight edge for cutting
  
• a set of harness needles. You'll need at least 2 (the link is to a 10-pack) and they have to be the thick kind with rounded point, normal sewing needles won't do.
  
• a diamond awl
  
  Plus of course materials: vegtan leather, wax thread.
  
  That's literally all you need to make leather armour; there's nothing to it but cut the pieces, pierce the holes where you want to sew it together and sew it using the wax thread. If you want it to be stiff, boil it in a big pot. All steps of the process are described in various tutorials on the web (check out Armitage Leather on YT).
  
  Things that you don't strictly need, but make the product nicer:
  
  
• edge beveler to take the edge off
  
• groover lets you inset your stitch lines, which looks much neater
  
• slicker for burnishing the edges. You soak them in gum tragacanth or some other solution (I use saddle lotion) and rub away to make them neat and shiny
  
  Things that you don't need, but that make your work easier:
  
  
• stitching pony is the leatherworker's vise
  
• marking wheels take the guesswork out of spacing your stitch holes. Or you can use a Wartenberg wheel like I do
  
• chisel punches let you do several holes at a time
  
• dremel with a burnishing bit will save you from tennis elbow if you have a lot of edge to burnish.
  
  Things that you need for the advanced stuff:
  
  
• Hole punches for installing rivets, eyelets, pop buttons and other hardware
  
• Sets and anvils for installing rivets, eyelets, pop buttons, and other hardware
  
• skiving knife for fine thickness control
  
• and many others, depending on what exactly you're after
  
  Things you might need for finishing:
  
  
• Alcohol-based dye and acrylic finish coat for the basic version (works perfectly well for me)
  
• Water-based dyes or acrylic paint if you want to actually paint stuff on top of the leather
  
  Tooling is yet another discipline, which requires a stylus, a swivel knife, a stone slab (don't try to replace this, they're cheap but make a big difference) and however many stamps you fancy.
  
  But all you really need are the first four items, and those will set you back like $50 total. Plus maybe a gel pen for marking.
  
  For more info, visit /r/Leathercraft