The hammer and pick, rarely referred to as hammer and chisel, is a symbol of mining, often used in heraldry. It can indicate mining, mines (especially on maps or in

cartography Cartography (; from grc, χάρτης , "papyrus, sheet of paper, map"; and , "write") is the study and practice of making and using maps. Combining science, aesthetics and technique, cartography builds on the premise that reality (or an i ...

), or miners, and is also borne as a

charge Charge or charged may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Films * '' Charge, Zero Emissions/Maximum Speed'', a 2011 documentary Music * ''Charge'' (David Ford album) * ''Charge'' (Machel Montano album) * ''Charge!!'', an album by The Aqu ...

in the coats of arms of mining towns. The symbol represents the traditional tools of the miner, a hammer and a chisel on a handle, similar to a

pickaxe A pickaxe, pick-axe, or pick is a generally T-shaped hand tool used for prying. Its head is typically metal, attached perpendicularly to a longer handle, traditionally made of wood, occasionally metal, and increasingly fiberglass. A stand ...

, but with one blunt end. They are pictured in the way a right-handed worker would lay them down: the pick with the point to the right and the handle to the lower left, the hammer with the handle to the lower right and the head to the upper left. The handle of the pick protrudes over the head, because the head is not permanently fixed, but can be swapped for a newly sharpened head when it is blunt from use. In coats of arms the symbol is often shown in black (

Johanngeorgenstadt Johanngeorgenstadt () is a mining town in Saxony’s Ore Mountains, 17 km south of Aue, and 27 km northwest of Karlovy Vary. It lies in the district of Erzgebirgskreis, on the border with the Czech Republic, is a state-recognized heal ...

Hövels Hövels is a municipality in the district of Altenkirchen, in Rhineland-Palatinate, in western Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in ...

), but also in natural colours ( Telnice) or in gold or silver ( Abertamy, Bodenwöhr, Gelsenkirchen). __NOTOC__

Examples

File:Wappen at muehlbach am hochkoenig.png, Arms of Mühlbach am Hochkönig, Salzburgerland, Austria File:Wappen Töpen.png, Arms of

Töpen Töpen is a municipality in Upper Franconia in the district of Hof in Bavaria in Germany. History Between 1945 and 1966 Töpen served as West German inner German border crossing for cars travelling between the Soviet Zone of occupation in Germ ...

, Bavaria, Germany File:Coat of arms of New Zealand.svg, Coat of arms of New Zealand File:POL Świętochłowice COA.svg, Coat of arms of

Świętochłowice Świętochłowice (; german: Schwientochlowitz; szl, Świyntochłowice) is a town in Silesia in southern Poland, near Katowice. It is also the central district of the Upper Silesian Metropolitan Union metropolis, with a population of 2 million, a ...

, Poland File:Flag of Karlovy Vary Region.svg, Flag of

Karlovy Vary Region The Karlovy Vary Region or Carlsbad Region ( cs, Karlovarský kraj, German: ''Karlsbader Region'') is an administrative unit ( cs, kraj) of the Czech Republic, located in the westernmost part of its historical region of Bohemia. It is named after ...

, Czech File:Kerkrade wapen.svg, Arms of

Kerkrade Kerkrade ( Ripuarian: ; li, Kirkraoj; german: Kerkrade or ''Kirchrath'') is a town and a municipality in the southeast of Limburg; the southernmost province of the Netherlands. It forms part of the Parkstad Limburg agglomeration. Kerkrade is the ...

, Kerkrade, Limburg, The Netherlands File:Seal of the United States Geological Survey.svg, Former United States Geological Survey logo File:BBI Verwaltungsgebäude Wackersdorf Gebäudedetail.jpg, Hammer and pick on the former administration building of the ''Bavarian Lignite Industry AG'' in Wackersdorf, Germany File:Seal of Colorado.svg, Seal of the State of

Colorado Colorado (, other variants) is a state in the Mountain states, Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. It encompasses most of the Southern Rocky Mountains, as well as the northeastern portion of the Colorado Plateau and the wes ...

in the United States.

Other

The hammer and pick is used to indicate the

working day The weekdays and weekend are the complementary parts of the week devoted to labour and rest, respectively. The legal weekdays (British English), or workweek (American English), is the part of the seven-day week devoted to working. In most of t ...

, on

timetables A schedule or a timetable, as a basic time-management tool, consists of a list of times at which possible tasks, events, or actions are intended to take place, or of a sequence of events in the chronological order in which such things are ...

. As an emoji, it is often used as a symbol for fans of

Premier League The Premier League (legal name: The Football Association Premier League Limited) is the highest level of the men's English football league system. Contested by 20 clubs, it operates on a system of promotion and relegation with the English Fo ...

side

West Ham United West Ham United Football Club is an English professional football club that plays its home matches in Stratford, East London. The club competes in the Premier League, the top tier of English football. The club plays at the London Stadium, hav ...

and for fans of

Ukrainian Premier League The Ukrainian Premier League ( uk, "Українська Прем'єр-ліга", ''Ukrayinska Premier Liha'') or UPL is the highest division of Ukrainian annual football championship. As the Vyshcha Liha ( uk, Вища ліга, ''Top League' ...

club

Shakhtar Donetsk Football Club Shakhtar Donetsk ( uk, Футбольний клуб «Шахтар» Донецьк , short nickname "miners") is a Ukrainian professional football club from the city of Donetsk. In 2014, due to the War in Donbass, the club was f ...

Unicode

Unicode Unicode, formally The Unicode Standard,The formal version reference is is an information technology standard for the consistent encoding, representation, and handling of text expressed in most of the world's writing systems. The standard, wh ...

, the "hammer and pick" symbol is U+2692 ⚒.

Examples

Other

Unicode

See also