Leather

Overview

Leather is the crafting material for books, item frames, bundles, leather armour, horse armour and the enchanting-table bookshelf chain, which makes it far more important than its role as starter armour suggests. Fifteen bookshelves for a level-30 enchanting table need 45 books, and 45 books need 45 leather — that single requirement is why most players' first serious cow farm exists. Cows, horses, donkeys, mules, llamas and hoglins all drop 0 to 2 each, and four rabbit hides craft into one leather if rabbits are what your biome offers. A leatherworker villager also buys and sells it, and cows breed with wheat, so a pen of four cows becomes a renewable supply within an afternoon. Beyond crafting, leather armour is the only dyeable armour and the only material that prevents freezing in powder snow. Keep the leather rather than the armour: a chest of leather converts into whatever the next project needs, and bookshelves are almost always the next project. Books, shelves, frames and bundles all trace back to a herd of cows, which makes the pen a better investment than it looks on the first afternoon.

Making books for bookshelves and enchanting, item frames, bundles and dyeable leather armour — the material that stands between a new world and a level-30 enchanting table.

In Minecraft, Leather is a crafting material item. A full stack holds 64. It drops from Cow, Donkey, Hoglin, Horse and 4 more.

You make it with Rabbit Hide. 8 recipes call for it, including Book, Bundle, Item Frame and 5 more.

How to get it

Kill or breed cows, horses, llamas or hoglins for 0 to 2 leather each, up to 5 with Looting III. 4 rabbit hides also craft into 1 leather, and 3 leather plus 3 paper make 1 book.

Tips

Forty-five leather is 15 bookshelves, which is the full enchanting table setup — plan the cow farm around that.
Breed cows with wheat rather than hunting them; the herd doubles far faster than a biome repopulates.
Four rabbit hides make one leather, which matters on a desert or snowy start with no cows around.
Leatherworker villagers sell saddles and buy leather, so a large herd funds the mounts as well.

Properties

One inventory slot holds 64, so a double chest holds 3,456.

Stack size: 64
Renewable: Yes
Category: Materials

Crafting recipe

Crafting Table

Leather

Dropped by

8 mobs drop Leather: Cow, Donkey, Hoglin, Horse, Llama, Mooshroom, Mule, and Trader Llama. Looting raises the maximum on most of them.

Cow

Used to craft

Leather is an ingredient in 8 recipes, producing Book, Bundle, Item Frame, Leather Boots, Leather Tunic, Leather Cap, Leather Horse Armor, and Leather Pants.