Saint Francis of Assissi said, “He who works with his hands is a labourer. He who works with his hands and his head is a craftsman. He who works with his hands, head and heart is an artist”
For more than six decades Mike Raso owner of Michelino’s Custom Woodworking on York Road has put his hands, head, heart and soul into his work.
“I’ve been doing woodwork since I was five years old with my dad and grandfather,” said Raso. “So, it’s a generation to generation thing.”
Raso was born in San Giorgio Morgeto, a medieval mountain town in the Province of Reggio in the Region of Calabria, Italy. His grandfather and father had a carpentry shop in the town where Raso, his brothers and many of his schoolmates learned the craft.
“In Italy, at that time you’d go in the morning to school from eight until 12 and in the afternoon you’d go and learn a trade,” said Raso. “Sometimes my dad would have 30 or 40 kids there. One would be learning how to sand while some of us would carry the lumber on our shoulders into the shop. That’s the way it was and I think it was a good way. It keeps you off the streets and it is the best way to learn a trade.”
He came to Guelph in 1963 and got a job at General Millwork on Elizabeth Street. He worked there for 13 years before his brother George Raso offered him a job at his shop, George’s Furniture.
“I worked with my brother for 23 years,” said Raso. “George didn’t have much work so I thought I might as well start doing it myself.”
He started Michelino’s Custom Woodworking 17 years ago in the industrial mall at 490 York Rd.
“It is strictly custom work,” said Raso. “I can do kitchens, desks, tables, china cabinets, whatever.”
He even works with wood in his spare time.
“I started carving in 1987,” said Raso as he pointed to a carving of a horned Greek god that hangs on the wall of his shop. “The first one was that one there. It’s of Zeus. That’s a copy. I have the original at home.”
Most of his work is cabinetry and furniture but he also designs game boards and has a custom line of Strombolo Cajons, a type of drum he first built for his sons, Adrian, Jason and Kristin who are professional musicians in the city.
He enjoys a challenge and if it can be made from wood he will make it for his customers.
“If they don’t have a design they tell me what they want and I’ll design it,” he said. “If they come with their own design I will build it. Whatever works for them.”
