Wayne the Wallaby | The BBQ Utility Knife

The Inspiration The wallaby is the one you actually see. Kangaroos get the coat of arms and the tourist photos, but it's wallabies in the scrub at the edge of the headlights, wallabies in the hills behind town, wallabies picking through a picnic ground with an air of casual entitlement. There are dozens of species and they've solved almost every habitat this country offers — rock wallabies bouncing up cliff faces that look vertical, swamp wallabies eating things that should be inedible, agile wallabies out on the northern floodplains. Smaller than a red, quicker through tight country, and better at the awkward ground where a big animal can't turn. Never the one in the photo. Always in the frame. The Design Wayne is the utility knife, which is a polite way of saying it's the one you'll actually reach for. Most BBQ prep isn't heroic. It's halving snags, slicing a lemon, trimming a fat cap, cutting cheese for the board, portioning sausage for kids who won't wait, opening the bag of ice nobody thought to open earlier. Too big a job for a paring knife, too small to justify picking up the chef's — that gap is where the afternoon really happens. The blade is mid-length and narrow, light enough to use one-handed off the board and long enough to be useful on it. Manoeuvrable in tight country, exactly like its namesake. Nine times out of ten, this is the knife that ends up in your hand. The Specifications [To come]