Pickaxe

How it works

The Forest Service handbook for trail work describes the pick head as having a pointed tip for breaking hard rock by forcing a natural seam and a chisel tip for breaking softer materials. The worker stands with feet about shoulder-width apart and one foot slightly forward, grasps the handle with the forward hand near the head and the other near the end, and works the pick with short, deliberate, downward strokes, bending at the waist with the back straight and parallel to the ground.

The pick loosens ground for another tool. The handbook says a shovel used with a pick or bar is most effective, because the pick or bar makes prying with the shovel unnecessary. The U.S. military hand tool manual calls the mattock a tool designed for digging and cutting, and describes the pick-mattock as the combination of a single-beveled mattock and a pick.

Anatomy

Head: Forged steel. The handbook gives pick heads a pointed tip at one end and a chisel tip at the other, and says they commonly weigh 5 to 10 pounds.
Point: The pointed end, which the handbook says is sharpened to a one-eighth-inch square tip.
Eye: The hole through the head. The handbook says an oval-tapered eye and handle end cause pick heads to tighten when swung and allow the handle to be removed for carrying and sharpening.
Handle: Wood; the handbook says most pick handles are 36 inches long. The Science Museum Group’s Hardy Universal 2 pick has a hickory shaft.

Variants

Antler pick: The Neolithic and Bronze Age form, cut from red deer antler according to English Heritage. The Science Museum Group record for the Grimes Graves pick notes that picks used in the Brandon flint mines today are also single-pointed.
Pick with chisel end: The common form in the Forest Service handbook: one chisel tip and one pointed end.
Pick-mattock: A pick point opposite a broad grubbing blade. The handbook calls it often recommended as the standard tool for trail work.
Cutter mattock: A grubbing blade opposite a two-inch cutter blade for roots, in the handbook.
Miner’s pick with detachable head: The Science Museum Group holds a two-pound miner’s pickaxe by Hardy Patent Pick Co. Limited of Sheffield, 1910–1930, with a detachable head and hickory shaft.
Machine-mounted tunnelling pick: A steel pick from a Whitaker cutting machine of the 1920s, held by the Science Museum Group.

Specifications

Head weight · lb: 5 to 10Forest Service handbook, for picks used in trail work.
Handle length · in: 36The handbook says most picks have 36-inch handles.
Point sharpening · in: 1/8 square tipThe handbook’s instruction for sharpening pointed tips.

Safety and care

Safety

Keep the pick from rising overhead while swinging. The handbook says this wastes energy and creates a hazard because the heavy, narrow head cannot be easily controlled or directed.
Wear safety goggles while picking to guard against flying chips of rock (Forest Service handbook); wear eye protection and set the feet firmly so the tool cannot glance and strike the legs or feet if the mark is missed (military hand tool manual, for the mattock).
Do not swing until it is certain that no one is endangered by the swing, a loose head or glancing of the tool (military hand tool manual).

Care

Secure the head before sharpening to free both hands, and sharpen pointed tips to a one-eighth-inch square with a grinder or mill bastard file; maintain the factory bevel on chisel tips (Forest Service handbook).
Clean the tool thoroughly after use, coat the head with oil, store it on its head against a wall or hung on a rack so the head is not struck against hard surfaces, and rub raw wood handles with boiled linseed oil (military hand tool manual, for mattocks).

Tips

Work the pick with short downward strokes
The handbook says to hold the forward hand near the head and the other near the end of the handle, bend at the waist with the back straight, and work the pick like a Pulaski hoe with short, deliberate downward strokes.1
Use the point for rock and the chisel for softer ground
The handbook says the pointed tip breaks hard rock by forcing a natural seam, and the chisel tip breaks softer materials.1
The tapered eye tightens the head
The handbook says the oval-tapered eye and handle end make the head tighten when swung while allowing the handle to be removed for carrying and sharpening. A small screw set into the handle just below the head can keep it from slipping.1
Hold the head on a frame with a bolt and wing nut
For sharpening, the handbook illustrates securing the head to a frame with a bolt through the eye fastened by a wing nut, which keeps both hands free.1
Let the pick break the ground and the shovel clear it
The handbook says a shovel used with a pick or bar is most effective since the pick or bar makes prying with the shovel unnecessary.1
On a pick-mattock, use the blade edge and the handle as gauges
The handbook says the grubbing blade can cut roots and remove small stumps, the edge can tamp dirt and loose rocks or smooth a new tread, and the handle helps measure the trail’s width.1

History

Earliest documented

3000–1900 BCE (Science Museum Group); mining at Grime’s Graves from about 2600 BC (English Heritage)

Grime’s Graves, Norfolk, England

The Science Museum Group holds a deer-antler pick from Grimes Graves, dated 3000–1900 BCE, which its record says would have been used to mine blocks of flint. English Heritage says that around 2600 BC, in the late Neolithic, people began mining the dark flint there, and that the miners dug shafts up to 13 meters deep and worked in galleries at the base of each shaft, prising out the flint with picks made from antlers.1 2

The pick is documented in the Neolithic as an antler tool. English Heritage describes miners at Grime’s Graves working in galleries at the bottom of shafts up to 13 meters deep, prising out flint with picks made from antlers, and the Science Museum Group holds one of those picks. Museum Wales describes a Bronze Age antler pick from Copa Hill that was made from a substantial piece of antler with the base of the bez tine left projecting for grip, shows extremely heavy wear at the pick end, and may also have been used as a hammer.

The Science Museum Group record for the Grimes Graves pick observes that the picks used in the Brandon flint mines today are also single-pointed. The same collection holds a bone pickaxe head attributed to the Bronze Age from Lake Neuchâtel in Switzerland, dated 1000–501 BCE, so early picks were made from antler and bone.

The metal pick took the form that survives in the handbooks. The Science Museum Group’s Hardy Universal 2, made in Sheffield in 1910–1930 of iron and hickory, weighs about 1.7 kilograms and has a detachable head. The U.S. Forest Service handbook of 2005 describes pick heads of 5 to 10 pounds on 36-inch handles with an oval-tapered eye that tightens when swung, and the military hand tool manual treats the mattock and pick-mattock as digging and cutting tools.

Makers of general edge tools added picks to their ranges. The Canton Historical Society’s summary of Collins Company catalogs from 1883 to 1957 lists picks and mattocks among axes, hoes, plows, machetes and sledges, and the company’s 1926 centennial book names picks among the tools it sold abroad and redesigned for local needs.

Machines took over part of the work. The Science Museum Group holds a steel tunnelling pick from a Whitaker cutting machine of the 1920s, which shows the pick as a cutting element on a powered machine. Hand picks remain in use where ground is hard, as the Forest Service handbook describes for trail crews working in rock.

Timeline

3000–1900 BCE
Date range the Science Museum Group assigns to a deer-antler pick from Grimes Graves.1
about 2600 BC
English Heritage dates the start of flint mining at Grime’s Graves to this time, with antler picks used at the bottom of shafts up to 13 meters deep.1
Early Bronze Age
An antler pick excavated at Copa Hill, Cwmystwyth, in 1995, with heavy wear at the working end, is now in the Museum Wales collection.1
1000–501 BCE
The Science Museum Group dates a bone pickaxe head from Lake Neuchâtel, Switzerland, “probably Bronze Age,” to this range.1
1868–1870
Canon William Greenwell excavates a deep shaft at Grime’s Graves and shows it to be a Neolithic flint mine, the first recognized in Britain, revealing the tools the miners used.1
1883–1957
The Collins Company catalogs held by the Canton Historical Society list picks and mattocks among axes, hoes, plows, machetes and other edge tools.1
1910–1930
Hardy Patent Pick Co. Limited of Heeley, Sheffield, makes a two-pound miner’s pickaxe with a detachable head and hickory shaft, now in the Science Museum Group collection.1
1915–1925
A steel tunnelling pick from a Whitaker cutting machine is dated to this decade by the Science Museum Group.1
1926
The Collins Company’s centennial book lists picks among the hoes, adzes, bush hooks, plows and shovels it supplied, often redesigned to suit local needs in foreign markets.1
2005
The Forest Service publishes Handtools for Trail Work, describing picks, mattocks and pick mattocks in use by trail crews.1

Gaps in the record (7)

The dating of the Grimes Graves pick to 3000–1900 BCE (Science Museum Group) and of mining there to about 2600 BC (English Heritage) are stated without an excavation report; the excavation literature has not been read.
The Museum Wales record gives no date for the Copa Hill antler pick beyond Early Bronze Age.
No evidence has been located for when iron picks first replaced antler and bone in Britain or Europe.
No patent, including Hardy Patent Pick Co.’s, has been located.
The company history of Hardy Patent Pick Co. has not been sourced.
No standard for picks has been confirmed.
No independent test data on pick heads or handles have been located, so buying is null.