Since the 1980s, taxidermists had been buying surgical blades from Havel's Inc., Havalon's parent company. The taxidermists liked Havel's products for skinning and caping because the blade edges lasted longer than other surgical blades. When Patrick Carrothers, Havel's current president & CEO, was first hired as a Havel's marketing manager back in 1996, he observed that taxidermists carried their
scalpel blades in a toolbox because there was no safe alternative. He also noted that the taxidermists liked Havel's post mortem style blades because they were stronger and didn't break as easily as regular surgical blades. After several years of this brewing in Patrick's mind, it occurred to him—and he remembers the epiphany clearly: "I said to myself: 'Why doesn't somebody make a scalpel that folds into itself and locks like a pocket knife? Hey, why don't we make this pocket scalpel?'" And thus, Havel’s pocket scalpels were born. The Havel’s team soon realized hunters would like this kind of knife for skinning big game. "I had a sense this product could appeal to a very large non-medical audience, so we created a new brand that would not confuse our medical customers. This new brand, Havalon, would offer surgical-edging technology to sporting and industrial markets only," Patrick says.
