As with most outdoorsmen, I'm into knives. I teach a lot of knife related seminars. In January I conducted one at the Dallas Safari Club Convention and Expo and have written probably 40 articles on knives and presented many seminars on knives for various companies and organizations. And then I have an article titled "Knife Sharpening" on Amazon Kindle. So when I say that I like knives, I really like knives. But I've been testing one that is really unique.
replaceable blades. Photo by Sarah Cronk
If you're not familiar with Havalon knives, they use a replaceable blade. The blades are literally surgically sharp and when they get dull you just replace them. I just timed it and you can take the blade off and put it back on in 1.8 seconds. It's safer to remove/replace the blade with a pair of pliers but I don't ever have a set handy it seems.
They have the Piranta-Edge Skinning Knife (2 3/4-inch blade) that is good for skinning and caping big game which comes in 10 models and has 10 different types of blades available and the larger Baracuta Bone-Saw Combo Pack (4.375-inch blade) that comes in three different models and works well for filleting fish and boning game. They make three different blades for the Baracuta and this doesn't include their six hobby blades. They also recently came out with the Bolt which has a thicker blade.
The last good many years most taxidermists have gone to using scalpels to skin out heads and feet on bears. The Piranta is the ticket for these two jobs. When I was a kid I used a small pocket knife to skin all my unlucky trophies that I trapped. A Havalon would have worked twice as good.
I'm always trying to cut weight since I hunt and backpack in the mountains. Havalon's are super lightweight. It's a foldup knife and so it won't take up any room whether you throw it in your pack or strap it on your belt.
The extra blades come in a small box and are individually packed in a foil package. For the Piranta you can buy packs of 12, 50 and on some of the specialty blades even packs of 100. On the Baracuda you can buy packs of 5 or 20. (Be responsible when disposing of the dull blades.)
This summer my buddy is wanting to take the horses on a 200 mile ride up in the Frank Church River of No Return Wilderness Area. I think I've got him slowed down to just do a 100-mile ride instead. We'll ride everyday for six hours, set up camp and then catch some fish for dinner. You can bet I'll be packing my Havalon to do the filleting — and maybe to threaten Shawn if he tries to make me cover another 20 miles in one day like last year.
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