OK Here I Go....Bashing Allowed

[cwood3]

I am new to leather work. Never built a saddle. I'm 58 and my hobbies are building acoustic guitars and split bamboo fly rods. I'm a mechanical engineer (welding engineer for a large co.). Good eye/hand coordination....craftsmanship skills, etc. My dad has raised Tennesee Walkers for 30 years. Plenty of horse sense, but I have always been detached from that due to overseas travel and other endeavors. So, I'm getting ready to pull the trigger on a CB4500 (Cowboy Bob, chime in). I'm going to do gun leather, biker heavies, and saddles are certainly going to crop up. So, the main thrust, after all this jibberish, is about jumping into saddle tree information. All our horses are saddled up fine, no need to address them. Saddle trees.......I want to learn on a tree that is a production (something Bowden, or others,  might have in stock), not custom, just so I can go through the motions. I know the cost of knowledge comes through experience at the price of screw ups.

What tree would you buy to get there?

I know there is no real answer to this question. But thanks anyway.

[Ken Nelson]

You might check on the market place on this forum.  There are several good trees for sale on it right now.   Lewis Tree Co in Hereford TX builds good trees and if you contact them, they may have an extra or two around that hasn't been picked up. Their  trees have worked really well for me.  They  are good to do business with.