Pen Pifher/MDN Darrell Kersting sparks a flint against a piece of steel as part of a fire starting demonstration at the Hostfest in Minot. This spark started a small fire in his hand.

Darrell Kersting, who goes by “Quacker” around the Viking Village, was acting as a blacksmith in the village while he shared useful knowledge and fun histories with guests of Norsk Hostfest.

Kersting took on the role of a blacksmith in performing demonstrations of that expertise. He used char cloth, which undergoes a similar process to charcoal and will readily burn when given oxygen and heat, in a nest of shredded rope to catch a shower of sparks.

“Just like wood is charred, and then before it’s completely burned out, they stop the flow of oxygen, that’s what char cloth is,” he explained. The needed sparks were created by striking a piece of flint against a piece of high carbon steel. This quick process, which Kersting showed he had practiced often, started a small fire in his hand, which he tossed onto the bed of coals atop his blacksmithing furnace.

Kersting also gave a tip on starting a fire. He said if some kindling is needed, one can go to an old fire and get a piece of charcoal, which can be shaved into a pile. This would give enough fuel to start a small fire. He gave other bits of advice as well regarding fire starting.

Along with his knowledge of bushcraft, which he shared with guests, Kersting offered an example of Viking ship building. He said the Vikings had built longships, which were unlike anything else at the time, enabling their crews to travel across open oceans, including the violent Atlantic Ocean. Most of the world at the time was stuck to keeping near coasts, as their ships could not withstand the high seas.

Kersting said that the ships would undergo massive twisting force, which would cause the ships to flex, and required a special type of construction called clinker building. Ships not built this way fell apart.

A theme among reenactors throughout the Viking Village at Hostfest is how precious metal was at the time. Kersting is no exception, speaking of shipwrecks in which, histories say, Vikings would salvage the rivets and nails by burning the wreckage and sifting through the coals. He explained as well the importance of the blacksmith in the village. He said blacksmiths were so valuable that those taken as slaves were sometimes adopted into the family who held them. “They were able to sit at the table with the rest of the Viking family,” Kersting said. “They had kind of earned that position because they were so valuable.”