There is a saying, necessity is the mother of invention, and Ōamaru electrician Richard Knight can attest to that.

Richard has been working as an electrician for more than twenty years, and about five years ago his frustration with the process of cutting holes in gib, ceilings, and soffits for fitting things such as fans and downlights, drove him to create his own hole saw.

“There was nothing out there that was practical and easy to use, so I thought there must be a better option,” he says.

Through searching he managed to find something he could modify with “some tinkering” in his workshop at home.

“I tried it at work, and with the other guys at work too, for two years and it's still going strong.” 

Richard has now cut more than 60 holes with that first hole saw, his wife and business partner Jessie says.

“Normally you'd get like about three holes out of a hole saw before it was buggered.”

The difference is, instead of having teeth, the saw cuts using an abrasive diamond edge.

“The diamond products are used for cutting concrete and that sort of thing so they're hard-wearing,” Richard says.

This was the first product produced by RWK Holesaws.

“So I made a few for the guys around town in the workshop at home, but with the time it took to make them. Yeah, we weren't going to make any money.” 

Eventually Richard found a manufacturer in China, who sent him a sample, and then he had 50 made.

When the box of the first 50 arrived, Jessie was sceptical about whether they would sell.

“I was like, ‘okay, good luck, mate’ . . . He put a post up on an Electricians New Zealand Facebook page, and just posted, ‘does anyone wanna give these a go for like a hundred dollars a hole saw’ . . . and the box was gone in two weeks. The post just went crazy.”

That was almost exactly three years ago, and since the launch of a website at the start of 2021, the business has taken off, with 2000 products ordered in the latest financial year.

One of the original diamond-edged hole saws Richard came up with. PHOTO: Supplied/Facebook.

In October, RWK Holesaws was named as a finalist in the Grand Business South Awards, for excellence in retail.

The couple entered on the advice of their Alexandra-based growth adviser. The business was just past the cut-off date for the emerging business category, so they decided to enter the retail category instead.

RWK Holesaws is all online, which allows the pair to keep costs down, and they supply tradespeople throughout New Zealand. To supply retail stores would be a “huge leap” from where they are now, Jessie, who takes care of the orders from home, says.

“It’s just me crazily packing hole saws at home with screaming children at my feet,” she jokes.

She says the couple’s two daughters Kenzie (5) and Hazel (2), love to help.

Jessie has also jumped in the deep end and taught herself all she can to help promote the business on social media, which has been their main form of advertising. Richard continues to work as an electrician three days a week.

The diamond saws are bright green, so they stand out from similar products and they now come in 38 different sizes.

RWK Holesaws have also branched out into bright blue and pink, more generic saws, similar to what is already on the market, but with a dollar from every sale going to either prostate or breast cancer charities.

They are thinking their next goal will be to try and break into Australia.

“We're sort of at that stage now . . . 'how do we get to the next step?', which has been cool with the business awards, because we've met so many people,” Jessie says. 

“And we’re sort of finding the right channels of people who can help us find our next direction, yeah, which is very cool.”

As part of the road to being named a finalist, the couple had to create a 10-minute video presentation for the judges.

“It was just so cool to be able to tell people our story and how it started," Jessie says. "Because to us it's just like the day to day, but when you actually sit down and think, where it started and where it is now, it's pretty amazing that Rich just came up with this product, like, ‘I'm sick of using this one, it breaks all the time, I'll just make my own’.”

When they found out they had been named finalists, they were “absolutely blown away”, she says.

“We just could not believe it, we've never done anything like this before. It's so exciting, it's just amazing.”

RWK Holesaws Ltd join other Waitaki businesses AcuCut Ltd, Valley Views Glamping, and Milligans Foodgroup Ltd as finalists in their respective categories. 

Winners will be announced on November 17, at a special awards dinner in Dunedin.

To support Waitaki businesses at the awards night, vote for your favourite in the People’s Choice Award online.

A selection of products that RWK Holesaws produce. PHOTO: Supplied