Knowing if they're a Good Tree Maker

[ArtS]

A question I have is how can a novice (like myself) know if a tree maker is good or not? What should we look for?

ArtS

[Hidemechanic]

Art, this was kind of where I was going with my post about selecting trees, but since you asked I'll answer yours with my opinion.

First off starting out it is common to ask around and you will get varying opinions as to who does what and eventually you will weed them out and make a choise and try one out. Then when you get your hands on one you will look for how well the lacing lays and that they aren't in areas that will be rubbed by the leather you apply to it. You don't want to see where stitch holes have stretched out when drying.They want to be small and close to the lace. As we mentioned in one of the othed related posts you want to see nails set deap against the wood and no gaps between the nail head and the wood.

When I first get a tree one of the things I do is set it on my stone ( my best flat surface) and check it for rock. Some trees will get a bit of twist in them that can be indicated by rocking on a flat surface. They should not rock and should set flat.

You want to check your horn for center.

There should be a smooth transition from the swells to the bars(where they attach) as well as the cantle and bars.

I had a long day so I'm going to let others add their thoughts. GH

[okiwen]

Boy, this should be a good thread. I can't wait to see all of the opinions. Perhaps some contact info too. I hope the aspiring tree makers a reading as well because I just saw a rawhide tree that failed nearly all those criteria above.

[bruce johnson]

Cop out answer here first, Art. If they fit your horse on the bottom, and you can build on the top, they are a good tree. The worst tree maker can make a crude old rough looking tree to fit, and the best can make one that looks like fine furniture that doesn't.THat is really the bottom line. After that then we get to pick apart or praise their woodworking skills on top and their rawhiding or LineX spraying ability (or both now).

About the only thing most of us can evaluate is the finish on a tree. Some gaps are going to happen with the best rawhiders sometimes. We worry about gapping, and then drill or screw right through the laced line sometimes. Not an issue for some pretty reputation makers whose work has stood the test of time. Rock is one of those things we all check. I have had a lot of discussion with some folks on rocking trees. Some is no doubt opinion, some probably not universally accepted, First off, it doesn't take much of a difference to give some rock. It can be from twisting, one bar pad being a bit wider than its mate, the cantle or fork not exactly square, etc. If it is from a bar being a bit wider, the bottom sits on the horse, not the edge. Those four points we are evaluating on our level surface probably should not contact the horse at the same time. If they do, there is not much relief built into the bar edges. . So the horse has 1/8" more bar width on one pad than the other. If the angles are the same and the bottom geometry is too, shouldn't matter. If that is the cause and we try to fix it by jumping on it or cranking on it, we are going to change the geometry of the bottom and introduce twist, a worse problem. Some companies fix rock by beating down just the high corner. If it from a twisted tree and differing angles, they haven't fixed anything, they just flattened the pivot point. It doesn't rock, but that doesn't make it right in this circumstance. If a tree is solidly put together and square in the wood, and the rawhide pulls it out of square, something loosened up. Did it twist, can they twist it back and it will be as solid? A lot of these are rhetorical, but food for thought. Trees rock for different reasons. Ideally they shouldn't, but when they do, it is not always bad. When they don't rock, it might be worse.

After that we evaluate centering of the horn, cantle and forks even. Are the bars the same length? How can we measure bar angles? Are they really 90 degrees/93 degrees? Are they the same? Can I see one degree difference for one side to the other? These are all mechanical things that are not the easiest for the customer to evaluate. Are the bars exact mirror images or does one have more twist or rocker than its mate? Things that make an even bigger difference than rocking or lacing, we can't reliably or don't measure. Scary for me sometimes, I just have to have faith that the guy sticking the wood and rawhide together is doing their job. If I can see a problem, it is then a big problem, because the minor stuff is probably going to get by most of us.

So I guess my bottom line is if I can put a tree on a horse like the customer rides and it sits acceptably, then it is a good tree. After that I have to decide if nylon vs rawhide lace, lumpy lace, abrupt cantle to bar transitions, staples vs nails, rawhide vs. whatever, or other factors are big or small to me. That is what seems to separate the treemakers bottom to top. I have to decide if I want to plug cantle transistions, rasp, Bondo, or just cover lumps, or order a tree from a maker whose work lets me forget that stuff. I think once we have a consistant way to communicate back geometry to the tree maker, and they can use it to fit the general type horse (not microfitting one horse usually), then we will be able to compare these other factors and their influence on our decison of tree maker.