axe handle to bar blacks from entering a "white" restaurant in the heated days of the American civil rights movement of the 1960s. A pick handle is officially used as a baton in the British Army. Pickaxes are commonly carried by Pioneer Sergeants in the British Army. A normal pickaxe handle is made of ash or hickory wood and is about three feet long and weighs about 2.5 pounds. British Army pickaxe handles must, by regulation, be exactly three feet long, for use in measuring in the field. New variant designs are: With a plastic casing on the thick end. Made of carbon fibre In former times they were sometimes made with a steel casing on the thick end. See also Mattock Ice axe References Hand tools Gardening tools