Tlingit carver restores posts for Totem Heritage Center's 50th anniversary

Tlingit carver restores posts for Totem Heritage Center's 50th anniversary

Tlingit master carver Tommy Joseph paints the Totem Heritage Center’s Eagle house post. (Hunter Morrison/KRBD) Inside a workshop at Ketchikan’s National Guard Armory last month, Tlingit master carver Tommy Joseph was hard at work. He slowly shaved a block of wood into the shape of a dorsal fin with an oddly shaped knife. After cracking a joke, he traded the knife for a tool that looked like a sickle but worked like a hammer. Large wood shavings …