I think it had a price tag of about $60 on it. It was made of old fence boars that were made to look "weathered". As cheap as I am I thought I could make something similar for less.
So last week bought some 1/2" X 1 1/2" X 8' pine boards for $6, cut them in half, placed them on a flat surface and free handed the steer head onto them. Then I cut them out with a jig saw.
Doing these cuts on individual boards was tougher than I thought - I had to make sure they lined up after making the cuts. Then once all the cuts were roughly made, I had to make the horns. Finally I bought a piece of thin plywood to secure the whole this together and add some stability. I traced the steer head on the plywood and rough cut out the shape. I then flipped it over and tacked the plywood to the pine boards to secure the whole thing.
With that done, I had to sand the edges, paint the skull portion with white paint and let dry. The next day I sanded out the white to make it look aged, then took my torch out and blackened the horns and edges, and aged the white sections as well. I added a hook to the back and hung it in the garage for a day or so.
I added some Christmas lights to make it a bit more festive.
Final resting spot is in the basement behind the fly tying bench.
Not bad for $15!
