If there’s one category a company new to the hunting industry might want to avoid, it would probably be knives. Knives come in every shape and size, with every possible handle and blade configuration, using every metallurgical steel formula, under every brand name. Many brands are formidable competitors, and hunters are sometimes so devoted to a particular brand that they’ll try no other. Could a newcomer choose a tougher category to compete in?

Yet that’s the category Havalon has built its brand in, and it has expanded a small niche in the hunting knife field to a category it virtually owns—the replaceable blade hunting knife.

Long before Havalon invented the hunter’s scalpel that folds like a pocket knife, its parent company Havels had been providing medical professionals around the world with the quality cutting tools. That’s why doctors who hunt use Havels surgical scalpels not only in their profession, but also to field dress their harvests.

Professional taxidermists were also using surgical scalpels daily on all kinds of animal hides. Since there’s nothing better than a scalpel for accurate, precise cutting through flesh, it was natural for doctors and taxidermists to carry one into the field.

Why wouldn’t hunters want the same performance doctors and taxidermists need? That question led Havels to create a reliable folding mechanism that was strong enough for hunters. The first Havalon style was a model with a stainless steel handle. They named this new knife the “Piranta,” a name that conveyed sharpness and strength because it’s reminiscent of the toothy Piranha fish of the Amazon that makes short work of any flesh. The rugged Piranta-Original, a true surgical knife, was ready for hunters to carry into the woods. Next came the Piranta-Edge, in bright orange because no hunter wants to lose a knife.

Over the years, Havalon has continued to introduce improvements that went far beyond new handle styles. Havalon redesigned the blade so that it will better resist breaking when the user makes a twisting motion. The new blade is 20% thicker and includes a small tab at the base to assist in blade removal. No other surgical scalpel can boast the thickness, the sharpness, or the ease of removal of Havalon’s proprietary 60A blade.

Havalon continues to advance with various handle styles, from the anodized aluminum Torch model to various camouflaged models, to the Bolt, the Forge, and the contoured Stag and others.