How to know if a valuable cattle skull is genuine
Real skulls come straight from the processing plants. Not every person has the “desire” to tackle this project. To take something no one wants to even touch or smell, and make a work of art is absolutely a miracle. The LHTT sanitation process of “house-breaking” a raw skull takes talent, tools and time. Many fake skulls are an effort to short-cut the perfect process and use a paint “cover-up” or just “half-way” do the job–it is not a fun job. Tools used at LHTT include a huge cooking tank with propane blaster, high pressure power washer, sanders, grinders, drills, hip boots, plastic gloves, jewelry polishing heads, and hours of skilled labor. All the time skulls must be protected from dogs and coyotes who “love to chew bones.” The western-polishing of skulls is not a job for Amway Ladies, computer gurus, dozer drivers or government postal employees.
Handling the big skulls up to and over 100″ tip to tip is no easy task. Eight to 15 hours of skilled hand work goes into every LHTT skull.
No yellowing will come with age due to the natural horn finish with no horn varnish of any kind at LHTT. Skulls are boiled in the big LHTT tank for many hours to disinfect and remove unwanted things.
The exact amount of chemical bleaching and de-greasing is done to create a permanent hard finish without overdoing the process to create soft chalky bones.
Most professional taxidermists charge $125 to $250 to polish a skull. If skulls are priced under the cost of professional polishing, they are probably fake or done by amateurs.
Don’t ask for a list of the 26 step professional processes. It is like indecency, probably not easy to describe, but when you see it you will know it.