Furniture maker Dorian Bracht tell us about his love of joints and his new book celebrating Japanese techniques
Dorian Bracht is a joiner and furniture maker based in Berlin. Born in Los Angeles, Dorian spent his early years in California and Hong Kong. After finishing school, he embarked on an apprenticeship in Leipzig, Germany to learn how to build Japanese shoji and fusuma sliding doors, as well as solid wood furniture. Throughout this time, he learnt both traditional German and Japanese woodworking techniques. Having a huge passion for joinery and woodcraft, Dorian has been a professional woodworker since 2012.
Japanese joinery
A self-described ‘joinery fetishist’, Dorian has recently written his first book on the subject of Japanese joints, which was inspired by his personal mission to cut ‘every joint in existence’. In Japanese Joinery, he uses his extensive carpentry experience to provide readers with a comprehensive guide to the world of traditional Japanese joinery and its influence throughout the world on woodworking and joinery today.
Japanese joinery is viewed by many as being an art as well as a craft or trade, and this is borne out by the intricate design and craftsmanship of the joints shown in the book. Over 50 different joints are included, ranging from traditional joints, which have been used over hundreds of years, to the most recent innovations in Japanese joint design.
The joints are illustrated by photographs of them both complete and deconstructed, and there are also hand-drawn technical illustrations. The accompanying text describes the history of each joint, how they are used, variations, and tips on how the joints are constructed. There is also a comprehensive section on Japanese woodworking tools. Here, Dorian tells us more about his career and his new book.
Can you tell us a bit about your background and what first got you interested in woodworking? I grew up in California and later in Hong Kong, before moving to Germany at age 11. My mother taught industrial design and moved for work, bringing me with her. I was always surrounded by many design books and always leaved through them when I got bored. I also enjoyed drawing a lot.
When I was in school in Germany, I already knew I wanted to do something creative and was very strongly leaning to graphic design. Before going to university though, I wanted to learn a trade, so as to not be inexperienced at working during my studies. Woodworking was just something that I thought kind of fit and I thought joinery looked sort of like it could be fun (little did I know back then …). So I started my apprenticeship with a German master, who had worked in Japan and specialised in shoji building and fine furniture.
What first sparked your interest in Japanese carpentry? A book my father gifted me, called The Genius of Japanese Carpentry by Azby Brown, telling the story of restoring part of the Yakushiji monastery in Nara. The book is very detailed in describing the ethos of the master carpenter Tsunekazu Nishioka. The description of all the unseen details and highly complex and thought-through joinery had me hooked instantly. I also very much enjoyed the geometric shapes of the joints and joinery drawings, maybe in part stemming from my interest in graphic design.
“Japanese joinery is viewed by many as being an art as well as a craft or trade, and this is borne out by the intricate design and craftsmanship of the joints shown in the book.“
What would you say are the main differences between traditional western woodworking and traditional Japanese woodworking? The main difference in my opinion is definitely the tools. The use and style of tools are so inherently different, but a lot of similarities can be found, since woodworking is still woodworking in both cultures. Japanese tooling relies heavily on quality steels and tool ergonomics aimed at a specific style of working. The hard steels can hold a very keen edge, and with some practice can achieve great results. By working on the pull stroke, a different approach to working the wood can be taken. Western woodworking has great, well-thought-out and beautiful tools. They usually work on the push stroke, so doing rough work with them can be easier than with Japanese tools. Still, very fine shavings, for example, can also be taken with a western plane. Another difference in my opinion is the cultural aspect, where aesthetics and tradition play a different role in each region. This puts importance on different steps in woodworking and gives different priorities in workmanship and results.
What inspired your mission to cut every joint? Well, I love joinery so much, that I see beauty in all the forms of joinery. I can’t really decide if one is better or nicer than the other. So in terms of cutting joinery for practice, I can’t really make up my mind where to stop, since there are so many joints. So I just kind of decided not to stop.
How far along are you in the project to cut every joint? Maybe one-tenth of the way. It’s really hard to tell, since I’m finding great new joinery I want to try all the time. I mean, books cost money and my library about joinery is still growing. I have maybe cut around 120 different joints. But I never really kept count.
How do you get hold of the reference material you need to recreate the joints? No real system goes into finding the joinery. Some are from Google searches. Or finding interesting papers online and following down a rabbit hole. Others are seen on a YouTube binge or on a pixellated Pinterest photo. A lot of the joints can be found in books, either ebooks or paper. I have cut a joint from a pixellated photo more than once, trying to figure out the proportions on my lonesome. Mostly it comes down to: ‘I really want to cut that joint!’
Do you have any particular favourites? That is a tricky question that always puts me on the spot, since all joints have so many interesting features. But if I was really pressed and forced to answer, I’d say locking joints that rely on tapered sliding dovetails, like the joints that are found in Ming- period Chinese furniture.
Which joints have been the most difficult to create and why? Joints with excessively angled faces that have little to no reference surfaces are the most complicated. Having nowhere to clamp down a paring block or use your combination square can get scary. Another type of tricky joint are the ones where the order of operations are very important but you have a lot of steps. Say for example you have your lines drawn, but by mistake you mess up the order of cutting and lines that you still need to cut disappear, and you have no way of redrawing them.
Which Japanese joints do you use most in your own furniture? The most common, distinctly Japanese joint I have used relatively often in my furniture is the Nejire Kumi Tsugi, or twisted dovetails. It’s a great aesthetic and strong dovetail joint for casework. Apart from that, I am more a fan of keeping the joinery hidden and simple. This helps keep one’s attention focused on the overall design of a piece, and not just the joinery.
Which Japanese tools do you use in your work? I use a lot of Japanese tools in my work. Around 75% of my tools are Japanese. I especially love the hammers, saws and hand planes. When learning with my master, we used Japanese tools a lot, since building shoji is easier with the Japanese style of tools. Especially finishing work, since the woods shoji are built with are extremely soft and need very keen edges and fine motions to finish nicely. So quite naturally it stuck, and my workflow ended up incorporating a lot of Japanese tools.
Many Japanese joints are intended for use in construction, have you had the opportunity to visit any buildings made using these joints? Yes I have, I have been to many temples and traditional houses in Japan. I always visited for a vacation, so I never really worked there or got the chance to see dismantled buildings or carpenters working on buildings. Lucky for me there is YouTube and Instagram, where a lot of very talented people show their work and techniques freely.
Could you tell us a bit about the type of furniture you make? Is your style influenced by Japanese design? Hmm, I wouldn’t say I actually have my own real style yet. I have to build a lot of pieces for clients who either know what they want or have a basic idea. So my creative input stays at a certain level. The times when I can do what I want are very limited. In those instances I am, of course, also very much inspired by Japanese aesthetics and design. But not exclusively. I also enjoy many different international design styles. Mostly though, I am inspired by things that I find interesting and not a certain style. At the moment I’m a big fan of colourful styles like Memphis Milano.
What future projects do you have coming up? I am becoming more active on YouTube again, making videos about cutting joinery. Also I’m getting more into giving workshops about joinery and solid wood construction. I have some interesting joinery-related ideas on the back burner, but my busy schedule is rather hindering on that front.
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Offer ends 3rd September 2025
PHOTOGRAPHS BY CHRIS MULZER. ILLUSTRATIONS BY DORIAN BRACHT