first off you've got a ton of helpfull info to go over,i'll add an enlightening bit here also.billy cook greenville saddles of the 60-70's were well made usa leather ,trees,etc 70%wetbak labor,he trained many us n mex workers who splinter'd off over n over n over,a lot of times he subb'd work out to these quitters.his volume kept getting larger n lgr n lgr.train cars full of herman oak at a time.competition from other factorys that included worker loss to them,
pattern duplication ,price cutting,all the nasty stuff that goes with pursueing voluminous
business.he went broke and in n out of business ,like the tide in galveston bay[kinda].he made enemys in the immigration dept and they bust him at least every 10 years,all the other wet back enterprises around greenville never get touched[i've been around here 30 years]he moved to sulphur ok to get away from everyone,his wet back force paid rent n purchased stuff to live in that small town also,they got him again, is the fine 10,000per wet back?amazing person, who's juggeled unbelievable volumes of everything at once he shoulda been a general!he picks up 40 or so saddles every week from his former son in laws shop.now skip forward ,competion in volume means low overhead n labor n material,loss of quality is a surety ,trees from mexico,sth am lea,contract labor 60 - 90$ a saddle ,if your saddle falls in that mess your tree is probably to fault. the contract laborer dont care aboot symentry its hurry up n get r done phew so am i adios pete