Meet Simon Raikes, the woodworker carving a legacy from timber

Sweet, earthy, smoky and slightly spicy. It’s a concoction of scent that often takes some visitors by surprise, but for Simon, it’s simply the familiar fragrance that fills his workshop daily. 

Starting with the small Levin-based company as an apprentice at just 15, he’s been carving, cutting, sanding, varnishing and polishing timbers into bespoke pieces ever since. 

“The founder was a builder, and he was doing an alteration on my parents’ house. I used to help him after school, and with that, he offered me a job just part-time. I’d always loved woodwork and that’s how I got started.”

Now the owner of Craftbuilt, having taken over the business in 2018, the journey has come full circle. With a new state-of-the-art workshop with an adjoined showroom currently being set up, it’s a huge shift that represents where the company is going.

“We’ve only just shifted a few months ago,” he says. “It’s quite a state-of-the-art workshop now compared to what we started with.”

Inside, the evolution is easy to see. While Simon was trained using traditional hand tools and joinery techniques, today’s workshop is a blend of old and new: CNC machines sit alongside hand planes and bandsaws, with the team of five gracefully moving between precision automation and the craft of hand-finishing. Even with the latest technology, the space is a hum of machinery, new and old. 

“It’s all advanced pretty quickly, to be honest, but I’m just thankful that I still know how to do everything the old way,” says Simon. “We have two CNC machines cutting out componentry and things like that. It is definitely still hands-on. You have to load the machine and unload the machine… it might only be cutting out the basic shape, and then we might have to add more to that shape or sand it.”

Days at Craftbuilt often start just as the sun is rising, usually stretching well into the evening. Wearing many hats, Simon moves constantly between ordering materials, quoting, speaking with customers, and being on the shop floor. “I’m often still here until six o’clock at night. They’re long days that I really enjoy.”

Among other recent projects, a definite favourite of Simon’s was machining 5,000 honey lids for The Southerly’s whisky-infused Mānuka honey. “We had to make all these wooden lids. We made a jig and machined using the CNC.”

On a larger commercial scale, the team’s craftsmanship is also on display at the Wellington Children’s Hospital. Standing at 7.3 metres tall, the central staircase is sculpted from oak with curved forms reaching to the ceiling. A six-month project, the structure is designed to symbolise the ecosystem of health services for children and families.

“We’re not just assemblers of furniture. We still design and create and prototype,” says Simon. And despite the growth of the workshop and the constant demands of running a business, there’s one thing Simon hopes to keep the same. “I never want to go off the tools.”