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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 standard pickaxe, similar to a "
pick mattock A mattock is a hand tool used for digging, prying, and chopping. Similar to the pickaxe, it has a long handle and a stout head which combines either a vertical axe blade with a horizontal adze (cutter mattock), or a pick and an adze (pick ma ...
", has a pointed end on one side of its head and a broad flat "axe" blade opposite. A gradual curve characteristically spans the length of the head. The next most common configuration features two spikes, one slightly longer than the other. The pointed end is used both for breaking and prying, the axe for hoeing, skimming, and chopping through roots. Developed as
agricultural Agriculture or farming is the practice of cultivating plants and livestock. Agriculture was the key development in the rise of sedentary human civilization, whereby farming of domesticated species created food surpluses that enabled peopl ...
tools in
prehistoric Prehistory, also known as pre-literary history, is the period of human history between the use of the first stone tools by hominins 3.3 million years ago and the beginning of recorded history with the invention of writing systems. The use o ...
times, picks have evolved into other tools such as the plough and the mattock. They also have been used in general construction and
mining Mining is the extraction of valuable minerals or other geological materials from the Earth, usually from an ore body, lode, vein, seam, reef, or placer deposit. The exploitation of these deposits for raw material is based on the economic ...
, and adapted to
warfare War is an intense armed conflict between State (polity), states, governments, Society, societies, or paramilitary groups such as Mercenary, mercenaries, Insurgency, insurgents, and militias. It is generally characterized by extreme violenc ...
.


Etymology

The Oxford Dictionary of English states that both "pick" and "pickaxe" have the same meaning, that being a tool with a long handle at right angles to a curved iron or steel bar with a point at one end and a chisel or point at the other, used for breaking up hard ground or rock. The term "pickaxe" is a folk etymology alteration of Middle-English ''picas'' via Anglo-French ''piceis'', Old French ''pocois'', and directly from Medieval Latin ''picosa'' "pick", related to Latin ''picus'' "woodpecker". Though modern picks usually feature a head with both a pointed end and an adze-like flattened blade on the other end, current spelling is influenced by "axe", and "pickaxe", "pick-axe", or sometimes just "pick" cover any and all versions of the tool.


History

In prehistoric times a large shed
deer Deer or true deer are hoofed ruminant mammals forming the family Cervidae. The two main groups of deer are the Cervinae, including the muntjac, the elk (wapiti), the red deer, and the fallow deer; and the Capreolinae, including the ...
antler Antlers are extensions of an animal's skull found in members of the Cervidae (deer) family. Antlers are a single structure composed of bone, cartilage, fibrous tissue, skin, nerves, and blood vessels. They are generally found only on ...
from a suitable species (e.g.
red deer The red deer (''Cervus elaphus'') is one of the largest deer species. A male red deer is called a stag or hart, and a female is called a hind. The red deer inhabits most of Europe, the Caucasus Mountains region, Anatolia, Iran, and parts of wes ...
) was often cut down to its shaft and its lowest
tine Tine may refer to: *Tine (structural), a 'prong' on a fork or similar implement, or any similar structure *Tine (company), the biggest dairy producer in Norway * ''Tine'' (film), a 1964 Danish film *Tine, Iran, a village in Mazandaran Province, Ira ...
and used as a one-pointed pick, and with it sometimes a large animal's shoulder blade as a crude shovel. During war in medieval times, the pickaxe was used as a weapon.


As a weapon

The historic pickaxe was readily adapted to a weapon for hand-to-hand combat in ancient times. Over the centuries aspects of it were incorporated in various battle axes. A pickaxe handle (sometimes called a "pickhandle" or "pick helve") is sometimes used on its own as a club for bludgeoning. In '' The Grapes of Wrath'' by John Steinbeck, pick handles were used against migrant farmers, and
Georgia Georgia most commonly refers to: * Georgia (country), a country in the Caucasus region of Eurasia * Georgia (U.S. state), a state in the Southeast United States Georgia may also refer to: Places Historical states and entities * Related to t ...
governor Lester Maddox famously threatened to use a similar, more slender axe handle to bar blacks from entering a "white" restaurant in the heated days of the American civil rights movement of the 1960s. A pick handle is officially used as a baton in the British Army. Pickaxes are commonly carried by Pioneer Sergeants in the
British Army The British Army is the principal land warfare force of the United Kingdom, a part of the British Armed Forces along with the Royal Navy and the Royal Air Force. , the British Army comprises 79,380 regular full-time personnel, 4,090 Gur ...
. A normal pickaxe handle is made of
ash Ash or ashes are the solid remnants of fires. Specifically, ''ash'' refers to all non-aqueous, non- gaseous residues that remain after something burns. In analytical chemistry, to analyse the mineral and metal content of chemical samples, ash ...
or
hickory Hickory is a common name for trees composing the genus ''Carya'', which includes around 18 species. Five or six species are native to China, Indochina, and India (Assam), as many as twelve are native to the United States, four are found in M ...
wood and is about three feet long and weighs about 2.5 pounds. British Army pickaxe handles must, by regulation, be exactly three feet long, for use in measuring in the field. New variant designs are: * With a plastic casing on the thick end. * Made of
carbon fibre Carbon fiber-reinforced polymers (American English), carbon-fibre-reinforced polymers (Commonwealth English The use of the English language in current and former member countries of the Commonwealth of Nations was largely inherited fro ...
In former times they were sometimes made with a steel casing on the thick end.


See also

* Mattock * Ice axe


References

{{Mining equipment Hand tools Gardening tools