The Australian Wood Duck is barely a duck. It grazes your lawn like it pays rates.

It's happier on grass than on water — a grazer that spends its days walking the paddock, the oval, the golf course, cropping green shoots like a small, well-dressed goose. Latham described it in 1801. The rest of the country has been quietly ignoring how odd it is ever since.

It nests high. A tree hollow, sometimes ten metres up, chosen for the view of water below. And when the ducklings hatch, they do the bravest thing in Australian birdlife: they jump. No flying lessons. No second attempts. They leap from the hollow, parachute down on stubby wings and unfeathered feet, bounce on the grass, and get up.

Then they walk to the water. Both parents go with them — the Wood Duck is one of the rare waterfowl where the father stays and stands guard.

That's the knife we built first. A blade that grazes as happily as it works. A design that stays close to home and does the job without fuss. A knife that, if it had to, would take the jump.

The dress code

We gave the Wood Duck a bronze anodised frame — the warm, earthed brown of the bird's body and the paddock it walks. Set into it, a genuine chestnut timber inlay: real wood on a knife called Wood Duck, because sometimes the pun is the point, and because timber is the material this bird's whole identity is built around.

The hardware runs blacked-out. Pivot, screws, flipper tab, deep-carry clip — nothing shouts. It's a local's knife. It doesn't need to.

The machine underneath

Wendy and Michael the Mallard are the same knife under the plumage. We designed the platform once, properly, and let the two birds tell their own stories.

95 mm of Sandvik 14C28N, ground to a drop point with a long, clean belly for slicing and a fine tip for detail — the geometry of a knife that earns its keep, whether it's grazing through a day of small jobs or standing guard over a bigger one. Which, for this particular bird, is the whole job description. Titanium frame, timber inlay, frame lock. Flipper tab and thumb stud, so you can open it fast or open it deliberately. Deep-carry clip, glass breaker, jimping where your thumb lands. 125 grams, and 10 mm across the handle — enough to feel like something, thin enough to forget.

Specifications