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Mattock, Grubhoe, Grub axe, All Season Tool

Mattock, An Excellent All Season Tool For Both Men And Women

The mattock has uses in all seasons. It has an axe like cutter blade which can be used for chopping tree roots, dirt, ice and for digging. It's one piece construction makes a perfect balance in average strength hands. The mattock also has a broad chisel like blade perpendicular to the handle making it an effective adz for hoeing gardens and flower patches. The mattock is an excellant tool for working with lawns, if you need to peel some lawn back to raise or lower the dirt below, the mattock works great. To lift sections of grass, use an lawn edger tool and cut strips about 8 to 12 inches wide and simple cut beneath with the mattock; then simply lift the portions up, using the same tool.
To use this tool place both hands comfortally onto the handle; place one hand at the very end of the handle, the other hand goes 1/3 to 1/2 way down the handle, grip the handle with your thumbs facing towards the blade and find the best balance point for you. Keep your feet well out of the way; light well placed blows are all that is required, when the tool is properly sharpened. Everyone should own one of these marvelous tools. In the winter it is a great tool for chopping grooves into the ice to guide the water from melting snow. It is also very good to help in breaking up ice on a driveway in the Spring.

This tool can be sharpened with either a bench grinder or by using a file ( see above picture). The axe like blade is sharpened from both sides at about 25 to 30 degrees. The broad chisel like blade is sharpened in the same manner as a wood chisel; sharpen the one side only; inside edge towards handle, follow the existing contour on the blade. If your have a vise, this will hold the handle firmly while you are shapening with a file.

History of the mattock
Many of the eary settlers used the mattock to start clearing land for breaking and used the sharp blade on one side of the mattock to cut roots of stumps, and the curved hoe-type blade to clear the dirt away from the roots.

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