How to know if a valuable cattle skull is genuine
Recently we have had numerous people contact us and ask why they should purchase a “Longhorns Head to Tail” Genuine Texas Longhorn Skull from when they can find one elsewhere on the internet for less money. If there is a skull that appears to be the same quality for less money, it possibly makes sense for you to purchase there. However, many of the skulls on other sites for much less money are not Genuine Texas Longhorn Skulls, in fact many of the skulls that can be found on the internet that are identified as Genuine Longhorn Skulls were from cattle that didn’t even have horns when alive. This page is to help anyone positively identify the real ones from the fakes. The Number one giveaway that the skull is a fake, is rope wrapped around the base of the horns. The rope may look “rustic”, “rugged”, or “western”, but the rope is not there merely for effect alone. The rope is there to disguise the fact that the skull is attached to the horns with plaster. 99% of the skulls with rope base wraps are not Genuine Texas Longhorn skulls. Lets start with some examples. | ||
Here is a small example of a “Genuine longhorn skull.” “Longhorns have horns” – and the top of their head is straight across or mostly so, with bones that extend out both sides into the horn shell. The top of the horns are pretty much level with the top of the skull. | Many other breeds of cattle are born “POLLED”. Polled means that they are born without horns. The shape of their head is rounded or pointed. The foundation bones that would normally extend out the side of the skull to support large horns are nonexistent. | |
So, what does someone do to make a “Fake” Texas Longhorn skull? They take a skull without horns and add horns to it. There isn’t a place to attach the horns, so they use a little plaster or glue and build a place to attach the horns. See the example below. The horns are not level with the top of the skull. | ||
So, now you have an ugly mess of plaster, what to you do? You use 50 cents worth of rope to hide it. See example below: | ||
Here is an example of a genuine Texas Longhorn skull that measures 56″ tip to tip. A Longhorn Skull should be Triangular in shape. | Here is an example of a “Fake” Longhorn that measures 56″ – Notice the narrow upper skull and the cover up rope? | |
| If you are searching for a genuine Texas Longhorn Skull, there are many available to choose from at Longhorns Head to Tail. If you are looking for a generic skull with horns plastered on, then you can take your chances on some of the other sites. Below are some examples of real and fake longhorn skulls that are typical of those available on other sites. | ||
 The skull below is a genuine longhorn skull, but hasn’t been properly prepared. It still has skin on part of it. Don’t hang one like this in your kitchen unless you like the smell of road kill with your breakfast.  |   | |
| Many of the other sites appear to be selling Longhorn Skulls, but their language is deceptive. Here is an example of one found on a well known auction site. It says: “Texas Western BULL – Longhorn Polished horns and Skull“ THIS DECORATION CONTAINS REAL HORNS AND SKULL That heading and description leads you to believe that the skull is a longhorn skull, but doesn’t actually say so. There isn’t a lie, but there is deception involved. | ||
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.
The famous process has taken 42 years to develop, but is the best in the osteology industry.
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.