Mattock vs. Pickaxe

Main Difference

The main difference between Mattock and Pickaxe is that the Mattock is a Adze-like hand tool for chopping, digging, and prying, especially for planting in hard ground and Pickaxe is a tool

• 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 mattock). A cutter mattock is similar to a Pulaski. It is also commonly known in North America as a “grub axe”.

• Pickaxe

  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”, 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 tools in prehistoric times, picks have evolved into other tools such as the plough and the mattock. They also have been used general construction and mining, and adapted to warfare.

• Pickaxe (noun)

  another term for pick (sense 1)

• Pickaxe (verb)

  break or strike with a pickaxe.