FlatWaterCowboy Report post Posted December 22, 2009 Has anyone used tree from the Bowden Saddle Tree Company? If so, how would you rate the quality? Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
RWB Report post Posted December 23, 2009 (edited) Has anyone used tree from the Bowden Saddle Tree Company? If so, how would you rate the quality? I've built a couple saddles on Bowden Trees. They are a fairly good factory tree for the price, but I'm pretty picky. So the result is that I ended up spending a lot of time cleaning up the lines of my saddles, and hiding the things that the tree factory missed. Things like the rawhide stitching on the back of the cantle isn't very flat so I had to fill in the divets and bring the whole back cantle up to the same level. Also the nails in the gullet aren't flat and create dimples. So I had to fill those. The other problem I had, was on one tree the cantle wasn't square to the bars, so the off side was a 1/4 of an inch forward of the near side. I'm not tryng to scare you off, but just want you to know the problems I had on the two trees I built on. All in all they are probably a pretty good tree, but I don't like to spend the time fixing all of those little things. It is cheaper for me to buy a good handmade tree that doesn't have those problems. If you not wanting to spend $500 on a tree then check out Quality Tree MFG. They make a tree thats nicer than a factory but not as expensive as a totally custom tree. Ross Edited December 23, 2009 by RWB Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
jwwright Report post Posted December 23, 2009 Of the "factory" trees I've built on, the Bowdens have been the best in my opinion. I have not built on Sonny Felkins Quality Mfg factory trees, so I can't compare with those. Bowden tree company has been in business a long time, and Lord knows how many thousands of saddles are in use every day with those trees in them. The customers who have saddles that I built on Bowden trees like them, and use them very hard.....they are professional horsemen/women and full time ranch cowboys. I personally had 2 saddles with Bowden trees in them that I used cowboying out of daily for several years and got along with real well. That said, there certainly is a difference between them and good true handmade trees, such as those I use from Jon Watsabaugh, and a big difference in price as well. A person just needs to decide whether the difference is justified for their individual situation. JW Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
BOOTMKR Report post Posted June 3, 2012 Has anyone used tree from the Bowden Saddle Tree Company? If so, how would you rate the quality? I had a saddle maker in my shop 10 yrs ago that's all he used. And he was one of the most funny guy about his trees, he go over them with a fine tooth comb. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
BondoBobCustomSaddles Report post Posted June 4, 2012 Most of the time I do use Bowden trees, however; I always have them custom made. I specify all that I want and pay the fee for having them made to my templates and they are and have always been made by Dave Bowden. I have never had one that didn't fit correctly , or that I had complaints about. While they are a factory manufacturer, Dave is also a custom maker , and does a nice job, especially for the money. I am sure that Rod, Jon and the others really make nice ready to use trees, but; like JW said, it is a matter of cost, and up here, there just aren't a lot of folks that want to spend the extra for a tree. Bob Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
