We are no longer building saddle trees, but we have two videos about how Western saddles fit horses available on our westernsaddlefit.com website.

Well, a combination of being embarrassed that I hadn't finished this job I started in October, and a long phone call with someone who didn't mind (or didn't say they minded) the noise of whamming with a chisel and mallet in the background resulted in me finally finishing getting the thick layers of varnish off the table this afternoon.  No, it isn't perfect, but a tree isn't going to try to slide off the mountain onto the floor again, and that was the whole point! 

We are no longer building saddle trees, but we have two videos about how Western saddles fit horses available on our westernsaddlefit.com website.

All day I've been trying to think of what I should post tonight.  I haven't had a lot of pictures of the shop lately, but how many more pictures of Rod sitting rawhiding a tree does anyone want to see?  However, I had to go out after supper to finish up some work and I took the camera with me.  And here is what I saw...

We are no longer building saddle trees, but we have two videos about how Western saddles fit horses available on our westernsaddlefit.com website.

The last reason to order a good hand made tree that we listed is education.  Right from the start of our business, we have wanted to help saddle makers understand more about trees.  I think most tree makers think the same way, but how and how much information they offer depends on a variety of things.  Ultimately, if a saddle maker wants to learn about trees and is willing to listen and ask appropriate questions, he isn't going to find too many tree makers who aren't willing to talk about their trees.  After all, when you spend all day, every day in the confines of a shop, alone, thinking about trees, it is kind of nice to talk to someone who is interested in your work.

We are no longer building saddle trees, but we have two videos about how Western saddles fit horses available on our westernsaddlefit.com website.

I have done posts on the jointer/planer and the BIG BAND SAW  (twice!!) but I haven't yet talked about the belt sander.  This is the last major piece of industrial equipment in our shop which runs on 220 power which is used in making the trees.  (The dust collector, which I kind of talked about here, also runs on 220 but isn't used in actually making the trees, so it doesn't count...)

We are no longer building saddle trees, but we have two videos about how Western saddles fit horses available on our westernsaddlefit.com website.

Our saying has always been "We won't say you can't break one of our trees, but we do say we want to hear the story, because it's going to be good."  It was - and here it is...  (To be read in the manner of a bed time story for a small child.)

We are no longer building saddle trees, but we have two videos about how Western saddles fit horses available on our westernsaddlefit.com website.

This week, Rod built four trees, and today he rawhided a couple of them.  They are for a husband/wife combination.

We are no longer building saddle trees, but we have two videos about how Western saddles fit horses available on our westernsaddlefit.com website.

Continuing on in our Good Reasons to Order a Hand Made Tree series, we come to #9 - Detailed Record Keeping.  We can't speak for what records other hand made tree makers keep, but we take a lot of measurements and keep documentation on them all.  To do this, we start by giving every tree its own serial number.  We put the saddle maker's name, the serial number and the saddle customer's name (if the saddle maker gives it to us) on a tag under the rawhide.  This identifies the tree permanently.  No one is going to remove that tag without pretty much wrecking the tree.  Since Rod is going to build another saddle this winter "for fun", this is the bar tag off the tree he built for us.

We are no longer building saddle trees, but we have two videos about how Western saddles fit horses available on our westernsaddlefit.com website.

On our page about cantles in the Understanding Tree Measurements section, I discuss dish, how it is measured (as demonstrated in the picture above), and how it combines with cantle height and angle to affect the slope of the face of the cantle.  (You'll have to go to our Cantle Conundrums page to get the scoop on that.  I'm not re-typing it today!)  But then I said " The width of the cantle has the same type of effect from the side to the center as the height does from top to the center. The narrower the cantle, the deeper the "cup" gets from side to side. You don't get the same amount of effect that changing cantle height gives because the cantles are wider than they are tall, so in most cases changing dish based on cantle width isn’t warranted. However, really narrow cantles may benefit from having less dish."  Here's an example of what I meant...

We are no longer building saddle trees, but we have two videos about how Western saddles fit horses available on our westernsaddlefit.com website.

When you decide to order a good hand made tree, you should be able to get pretty much what you want.  How companies that make trees primarily by duplicating the parts make variations for special orders seem to vary in quality and effect, at least from what we have discovered by building duplicates of a few of them.  But for a truly hand made tree, because every part is built individually for your order, doing something unique isn't a problem.