Post by Gumog
I currently have a Warrior lvl 70, and 375 for Skinning, I was thinking about starting a hunter and its my understanding that through Leather Working you can create some pretty nice gear for hunters..
..and for Rogues, Druids and Shamans, including Mail armors for later on when your Hunter (and Shamans) can wear them. For the most part what you make via Leatherworking will generally be better than what you'll find via non-instance quests - assuming you're not running instances over and over and/or PvPing.
The best option is to just go Skinning/Leatherworking on your new Hunter. That way you don't have to have your main go and be bored farming the lower level areas for skins or waste gold to supply him with base materials. If your Hunter ends up lacking for cash because leather's not profitable on your server (on mine I was able to make a decent 1gp per Embossed Leather Boots using Skinned light leather early on; never posted more than 3-4 at a time to avoid flooding the AH) you can always funnel gold from your main, especialy for level 30. It'll be cheaper and easier that way.
Until the higher Leatherworking levels, especially for the last push between 275-300 when you've probably reached the Outlands with the character and aren't getting Rugged Leathers without resorting to dedicated farming, you won't need to actually farm if you don't want to. Just kill any skinnable beasts (and even certain critters - rabbits, deer, sheep and rams, mainly) you happen to pass on the road while questing, even if you could pass them unmolested. Especially if they still give XP, of course. :) It slows you down a little, but not too much if you don't head too far offroad. And there's a ton of quests, of course, that require you to kill many skinnable beasts.
WoWWiki's
economical training guide will be your best friend (there's also articles for the other professions, though a couple are oddly named). Just follow it when you can, though don't be too religious about it - remember to buy recipes that'll be an upgrade for you and make sellable stuff (since it lists the simplest, cheapest recipes, much of what's in the article is vendor trash). Of course, if you decide to just rely on your main, the article's even better since it'll let you know what to buy and send to your Hunter (plus a little extra to keep his armor upgraded) at each stage.