Baphomet is a devil type god once worshiped by the Knights Templar.

He is a bit scary. The god is a winged human figure with the head and feet of a goat.

In the picture below I am attaching one part of his tail to his body. The pine cones are not related.

I also had to assemble Baphomet’s scythe. This was cast in white bronze. After casting I left the piece for too long in my pickle pot (weak acid) to clean the casting oxides and it partly plated in copper. I now need to use some hydrogen peroxide to make a “super pickle” so as to remove the copper.

The next stage involves the assembly of Lilith, the girl that sits on Baphomet’s shoulder. I cast yellow brass boots and a white bronze vest, but as often happens things sometimes go wrong. I melted part of the vest with my torch when trying to attach the piece to the girl’s shoulders and so had to cast a new part. Her head is not attached in this picture.

Next came the assembly of the horn extensions off Baphomet’s head. As with much of this sculpture I had to cast separate parts and then braze them together as my casting flasks were not large enough to be able to cast the part as a whole.

Perhaps the most tedious part of the assembly was the need to cast Baphomet’s wings in parts. Each wing was cast in multiple pieces in my largest 5×7 inch casting flask. When I had the parts in metal they all had to be brazed together.

The wings took a fair bit of heat to attach to Baphomet’s body. It took about 15 minutes of heating to get the body and wing hot enough for my brazing solder to melt sufficiently. At no time could I get the bronze red hot such that the solder would fully melt and flow.

Baphomet is now starting to look quite impressive. The full wing span is about 20 inches.

The next stage is to assemble Lilith. I had some problems with two investment inclusions showing in her leg. These are holes that need to be drilled and then filled with new metal.

I drilled and pinned Lilith to Baphomet’s shoulder. In the picture below you can see where I used a 1/8 inch brass pin to secure the girl to Baphomet.

She is actually brazed to Baphomet. The bronze gets badly oxidized with the heat that I am using which turns her dark. This oxidation, along with the flux residue, provides some interesting colours to the metal. But, I will have to remove all this oxidation so as to properly finish and patina the sculpture when done.

Lastly, I reconnected Baphomet’s hand. I had cut this off earlier so as to attach Lilith as it was not possible to set her on his shoulder with the hand attached.

The final stage is to attach Lilith’s head and hat. When I first assembled these pieces I had to remove the hat and reset the head as it was not fully secure. The problem with rework is that it is not productive.

At this stage I have to attach Baphomet’s horn extensions and then figure out how I am going to soak this sculpture in my hot acid pickle to remove the heat oxides. I also have to clean up and attach Baphomet’s scythe. I will post another update at that time.