The Complete Handbook of Mattocks & Pickaxes

Chapter 1: Understanding Mattocks & Pickaxes

Before you can choose the right tool for a job, you have to understand what that tool is designed to do. It is a common mistake to treat the terms "mattock" and "pickaxe" as interchangeable, or to think of them as variations of an axe. They are not. They belong to a family of hand tools whose primary function is to break and move compacted material. While a carpenter's axe is designed to cut wood fibers cleanly, a pick or mattock is designed to fracture the material it is struck against, whether it is rock, hardened clay, or frozen soil. The head of the tool, set perpendicular to the handle, converts the downward force of a swing into a focused, brutal impact at a single point or narrow edge.

The difference between the two tools is found in the shape of that head. A true pickaxe, sometimes simply called a pick, features a long, pointed metal spike on at least one end. It functions like a lever and a wedge, concentrating the entire force of your swing onto a tiny surface area. This extreme pressure creates fractures in brittle materials like rock, concrete, or heavily compacted aggregate. A pick is not primarily a digging tool; it is a breaking tool. You use it to split a boulder, to crack a thick slab of asphalt, or to break through a layer of caliche that a shovel cannot dent.

The mattock, by contrast, has a head