Ceremony hammer of a miner VEB KombinatSenftenberg (GDR) - with honorary uniform
Apickaxe (American spelling:pickax[1]),pick-axe, orpick is a generally T-shapedhand tool used forprying. 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", 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 asagricultural tools inprehistoric times, picks have evolved into other tools such as theplough and the mattock. They also have been used in general construction andmining, and adapted towarfare.
Etymology
TheOxford Dictionary of English states that bothpick andpickaxe 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.[2]
The termpickaxe is afolk etymology alteration ofMiddle Englishpicas viaAnglo-Normanpiceis,Old Frenchpocois, and directly fromMedieval Latinpicosa'pick', related to Latinpicus'woodpecker'.[3][4] Though modern picks usually feature a head with both a pointed end and anadze-like flattened blade on the other end, current spelling is influenced byaxe, andpickaxe,pick-axe, or sometimes justpick cover any and all versions of the tool.
History
In prehistoric times a large sheddeerantler from a suitable species (e.g.red deer) was often cut down to its shaft and its lowesttine and used as a one-pointed pick,[5] and with it sometimes a large animal'sshoulder blade as a crude shovel.During war in medieval times, the pickaxe was used as a weapon.
As a weapon
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 variousbattle axes.
A pickaxe handle (sometimes called a "pickhandle" or "pick helve") is sometimes used on its own as aclub for bludgeoning. InThe Grapes of Wrath byJohn Steinbeck, pick handles were used against migrant farmers, andGeorgia governorLester Maddox famously threatened to use a similar, more slender axe handle to barblacks from entering a whites-only 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.[citation needed]
A normal pickaxe handle is made ofash orhickory wood and is about 3 ft (91 cm) and weighs about 2.5 lb (1.1 kg). British Army pickaxe handles must, by regulation, be exactly 3 ft (91 cm) long, for use in measuring in the field.[citation needed] New variant designs are:
