A pickaxe or pick is a hand tool with a hard head attached perpendicular to the handle. They are used as tools for landscaping, breaking up hard surfaces and as farming implements. It consists of a handle and a head made of metal that has both a pointed and blunt end. The pointed end breaks up hard surfaces, while the blunt end can be used to pry things up. A pickaxe can often break up soils that a shovel can’t. Dry, hardened clay or rocky soils can be broken up using the sharp end of the axe.