[Low-Tech/Basic] Pick: War Club or Pickaxe

[Pursuivant]

Originally Posted by Blind Mapmaker

Now for the axe vs. adze head. I thank DanHoward for making us look again since this is really a bit of fuzzy language issue. I'll keep the term pickaxe because it's closest to German (Spitzhacke / Pickel).

It appears that in German, as in English, there is a lot of variation in what the terms Pickaxe (Spitzhacke/Kreuzhacke) and Mattock (Hacke) actually mean. Pre-20th century farmers and miners probably had much more precise terminology.

Messing around with Wikipedia and search engine image searches I found the civilian precursor of the warhammer, the Bergmannspickel (miner's pick).

For clarification, this is the tool I've spent way too much time swinging. It's very good at turning slabs of concrete into rubble, but not something I'd want to take into battle.

By comparison, a pickaxe with a lighter head (2.5 lbs/1 kg) would be a much handier weapon. Call it the difference between a Pickaxe and a Heavy Pickaxe.