The Traveling Forge – A Woodworking Masterpiece

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I’ve got an incredible friend. His name is Duffy Neubauer. He’s one of those guys with no excuses. And I mean none, zero, zilch, zip, nada. Not a single one. I’ve known the guy for six years now and I’ve never heard him be negative or have any excuses for not getting something done. He simply gets stuff done. It’s this type of mindset that is so incredibly powerful to anyone in any stage of their life.

Mr. Duffy, as my wife and I call him, is passionate about history. Sometime ago he got hooked on the civil war era, the 1860’s. I have no idea what acquisition was the first piece of the puzzle but Mr. Duffy now has a complete collection of civil war rolling artillery. It’s all on display in his museum, The Starkville Civil War Arsenal. He has a handful of canons, which are original, but the rest of the rolling stock was all built by him. Not only built by him, but built to the exact specifications on the original contracts. That alone is an incredible feat but when you take into consideration that Mr. Duffy is not a “woodworker” the feat becomes even more impressive. He didn’t FIRST gain the knowledge and experience making stuff out of wood AND THEN decide he wanted to use that knowledge to build incredible pieces like this. Instead, with no major woodworking experience, he determined his end goal and did whatever was necessary along the way to achieve that goal. The necessary steps include a tremendous amount of precise woodworking.

All of that to say kudos to Mr. Duffy on all that he has done to accomplish his ever evolving goals and not let the unknown or difficult get in his way, and in doing so pass along education of a long gone era. In this video Mr. Duffy highlights one of the most important vehicles of the 1860’s, the traveling forge.

For more information or to contact Mr. Duffy directly you can view his website here: https://www.starkvillecivilwararsenal.com/

9 COMMENTS

  1. So interesting to know this. I never thought of how the armies would keep up there equipment.
    When one thinks about it that would be a very big job. Can you imagine the requests they would get. One wonders how even they were handled and by who.
    Thanks for the time on this piece.

  2. Excellent article and video, Jay. I’m sharing this with my Brother-in-Law who is a real civil war buff, and a few other folks. Thanks for sharing this.
    Felix

  3. Very interesting article on a necessary subject of our past.
    I remember past articles on the cannons.
    keep up the good work and thank your wife for her service.
    enjoy the little one daily.

  4. In the German Army, back in the American War Between the States era, my Great Grandfather was the Blacksmith. I would imagine he would have used such a traveling forge. He was also the Battalion Doctor because he had the knives, saws, catheterizing irons, etc. and wasn’t afraid of a little blood.
    He always wore a collar and tie – regardless of the work he was performing, dirty or bloody.

  5. Wow. So awesome to understand how they did things back in the olden days. I also like to watch Engels Coach Shop.

    We’ll have to make a side trip to see Mr. Duffy and how museum when we work with you on the Pantorouter! Lll

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