# Pickaxe
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{{Short description|T-shaped hand tool used for prying, digging and as a impromptu weapon}}
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{{Infobox tool
|name=Pickaxe
|image=Pickaxe.jpg
|caption=Pickaxe on the ground
|other_name=Pick, pickax[{{MW|pickax|access-date=2025-12-25}}]), '''pick-axe''', or '''pick''' is a generally T-shaped [hand tool](/source/hand_tool) used for digging. 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](/source/mattock)", 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](/source/agricultural) tools in [prehistoric](/source/prehistoric) times, picks have evolved into other tools such as the [plough](/source/plough) and the mattock. They also have been used in general construction and [mining](/source/traditional_mining), and adapted to [warfare](/source/warfare).
==Etymology==
The [Oxford Dictionary of English](/source/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.[{{cite book|last1=Soanes|first1=Catherine|last2=Stevenson|first2=Angus|title=Oxford Dictionary of English|date=2006|publisher=Oxford Univ. Press|location=Oxford, New York|isbn=978-0-19-861057-1|page=1330|edition=2. ed. (rev.) / ed. by Catherine Soanes ...}}]
The term ''pickaxe'' is a [folk etymology](/source/folk_etymology) alteration of [Middle English](/source/Middle_English) {{lang|enm|picas}} via [Anglo-Norman](/source/Anglo-Norman_language) {{lang|xno|piceis}}, [Old French](/source/Old_French) {{lang|fro|pocois}}, and directly from [Medieval Latin](/source/Medieval_Latin) {{lang|la|picosa}} {{gloss|pick}}, related to Latin {{lang|la|picus}} {{gloss|woodpecker}}.[{{MerriamWebsterDictionary|Pickax|access-date=2017-03-03}}][{{OEtymD|pickaxe}}] Though modern picks usually feature a head with both a pointed end and an [adze](/source/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](/source/deer) [antler](/source/antler) from a suitable species (e.g. [red deer](/source/red_deer)) was often cut down to its shaft and its lowest [tine](/source/tine_(structural)) and used as a one-pointed pick,[{{cite web|url=http://www.ingenious.org.uk/See/Tradeandindustry/Handandmachinetools/?target=SeeMedium&ObjectID=%7BB316DA4B-0B90-D31E-C28F-94EC504B8D04%7D&viewby=images|title=Deer-antler pick, used in flint mining from Grimes Graves|publisher=ingenious.org.uk|access-date=6 July 2012}}] and with it sometimes a large animal's [shoulder blade](/source/shoulder_blade) as a crude shovel.
During war in medieval times, the pickaxe was used as a weapon.
==As a weapon==
right|thumb|Illustration of pickaxe handles being combined with riot shields
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 axe](/source/battle_axe)s.
A pickaxe handle (sometimes called a "pickhandle" or "pick helve") is sometimes used on its own as a [club](/source/Club_(weapon)) for bludgeoning. In ''[The Grapes of Wrath](/source/The_Grapes_of_Wrath)'' by [John Steinbeck](/source/John_Steinbeck), pick handles were used against migrant farmers, and [Georgia](/source/Georgia_(U.S._state)) governor [Lester Maddox](/source/Lester_Maddox) famously threatened to use a similar, more slender axe handle to bar [blacks](/source/negro) from entering a whites-only restaurant in the heated days of the American civil rights movement of the 1960s.
Pickaxes are commonly carried by [Pioneer Sergeants](/source/Pioneer_Sergeant) in the [British Army](/source/British_Army).[{{cite web |last1=Tooth |first1=John-Paul |title=Meet The Pioneer Sergeant: One Of The Few Army Ranks Allowed A Beard On Parade |url=https://www.forces.net/news/meet-pioneer-sergeant-one-few-army-ranks-allowed-beard-parade |website=forces.net |access-date=22 July 2019 |page=1 |format=Web page |date=3 October 2018}}]
A normal pickaxe handle is made of [ash](/source/Ash_tree) or [hickory](/source/hickory) wood and is about {{convert|3|ft|cm|abbr=on}} and weighs about {{convert|2.5|lb|kg|abbr=on}}. British Army pickaxe handles must, by regulation, be exactly {{convert|3|ft|cm|abbr=on}} long, for use in measuring in the field.{{cn|date=June 2019}} New variant designs are:
* With a plastic casing on the thick end.
* Made of [carbon fibre](/source/carbon_fibre){{cn|date=October 2023}}
They are sometimes made with a steel casing on the thick end.
==See also==
* [Mattock](/source/Mattock)
* [Ice axe](/source/Ice_axe)
* [Entrenching tool](/source/Entrenching_tool)
==References==
{{Commons category|Pickaxes}}
{{Reflist}}
{{Garden tools}}
{{Mining equipment}}
Category:Hand tools
Category:Gardening tools
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Adapted from the Wikipedia article [Pickaxe](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pickaxe) by Wikipedia contributors ([contributor history](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pickaxe?action=history)). Available under [Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/). Changes may have been made.