Why does every single mattock out there come with some bullshit short as frick handle? 36 inch for a tool like that is useless, I mean what in the absolute frick? I can't imagine some Roman out there hunched over with his 36 inch handle trying to dig a ditch or something.
oh god you're a fricking moron.
?????
You're not supposed to swing it over your head. It's a pick. Pick at things.
>You're not supposed to swing it over your head
Yes, you are.
How big are you, OP? Because I'm 6'2" and a standard pick handle isn't too short for me. Have you considered that you're doing it wrong?
I'm 5'7. I like being able to use it in broad strokes and change where I am on the handle as needed. Hard to explain, but I've used a long handled mattocks and found it far better than the "standard" size. 36 inch is fine for a pickaxe, not a mattock.
This. You can definitely swing it over your head if you want to. There really isn't anything to stop you.
>This. You can definitely swing it over your head if you want to. There really isn't anything to stop you.
For:
It sounds to me that you're trying to use a mattock as a hoe.
Sometimes. I use the spike end the same way, it's like a pick and a hoe in one.
Tall guy here
This is the best tool I've ever bought on a whim.
https://www.tractorsupply.com/tsc/product/groundwork-cultihoe-with-wood-handle
I use the pickmattock for tearing up sod in heavy clay or tightly-rooted areas, but this thing does a fine job in anything loose-ish or recently tilled. I've even cut sod with it too when conditions are right.
I was actually just looking at one of those at tractor supply yesterday. Couldn't decide and decided not to impulse buy, though it did look useful.
Once you've used a longer handle it is revealed to be suboptimal.
>There really isn't anything to stop you.
True, just your feet, ankles and shins to stop it when your giant overhead wind-up inertia goes slightly astray.
The blade side is basically an adze for dirt work and like an adze its about finer detail work using incremental chisel like cuts that shave material away, not hogging out massive chunks that require overhand swings for momentum.
homie, what the frick are you talking about. Mattocks, picks, and axes are all swung overhead. That's the entire point of the tools, and their various combinations, and the very reason they have a 3' handle instead of an 18" one.
>your feet, ankles and shins to stop it when your giant overhead wind-up inertia goes slightly astray.
Why are you swinging at your feet? This cannot happen if you're using the tool correctly.
>Mattocks, picks, and axes are all swung overhead.
Really? You fell a tree with overhead strokes that by default make the axe cut vertical? Who knew?
>That's the entire point of the tools, and their various combinations, and the very reason they have a 3' handle
>36 inch (handle) for a tool like that is useless, I mean what in the absolute frick?
>the very reason they have a 3' handle
>3' handle
>36 inch
>useless
"what in the absolute frick? ", indeed.
That's not OP (me).
>Really? You fell a tree with overhead strokes that by default make the axe cut vertical?
Obviously not, but you do try to do as much of the work with as vertical of cuts as you can manage. That's why you cut a wedge out above horizontal, and cut from the top of the wedge you're removing, not the bottom.
Likewise, when you have a choice on how to position your work while splitting wood, you don't come at it sideways or some shit.
The ideal use of manual striking tools is to let gravity do the work for you.
>The ideal use of manual striking tools is to let gravity do the work for you.
The ideal use of manual striking tools is to let gravity do the work for you *while maintaining control* of the tool.
That's why for anything that doesn't require maximum brute force and little need for accuracy like breaking big rocks, beginng your swing overhead is ill advised. Not to mention the unnecessary strain it puts on the body, *especially* if you have to repeatedly hoist a heavy metal implement on a lever longer than 40" or so up over your head.
>Not to mention the unnecessary strain it puts on the body, *especially* if you have to repeatedly hoist a heavy metal implement on a lever longer than 40" or so up over your head.
The typical weight range is 2.5 to 10 lbs.
>You fell a tree with overhead strokes that by default make the axe cut vertical? Who knew?
Stand horizontally you moron
It's just a chunk of iron, you can do a ton of things with it.
Manlets pls go
>be me
>never have an issue with my height
>watch tall people
>always having to lean over
>can't fit in small spaces
>spine issues if they don't stay in shape
>women are all much shorter than them
For.... what, slightly larger armspan? Being able to reach the back of the top shelf at the store? In some cases you'll have better sprint speed if the legs are built right and they have a narrow pelvis, but that's about it.
Thanks for recognizing my one superiority. I'm fast as frick boi
So am I, but I can't deny that longer legs are a pretty much unbeatable advantage on the upper end. Like, compared to most people I'm very fast, but then there's another class of people.
>Used to work with pic related, plastic box with 2700lbs of corn in it
>Sometimes have to scoop some corn out to take a sample
>Manlets and females always seething because I can just reach in and scoop the corn out(shoulder is above the top edge of the box), or vault myself over the side into the box if it's only half full
>Most people needed to be lifted a few inches on a forklift to get their shoulder over the edge
That's pretty much all I've got
>but that's about it.
The obvious one outside of reach is strength. Tall people are generally just stronger, period, because "tall" implies "large". It doesn't matter if you're relatively lanky; if you're 6'5", odds are very good you're physically stronger than someone who's 5'10", even if they're in reasonably good shape.
There's good reason the generally-recognized "strongest man alive" (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Haf%C3%BE%C3%B3r_J%C3%BAl%C3%ADus_Bj%C3%B6rnsson) was able to get that title, and it's not just because he's built like a tank. It's because he's built like a tank and 6'9". You flat-out can't weigh 440lb+ at under 6' tall without just being a lardass.
>I'm 5'7
HAAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAAAAAAAAA
*deep breath*
AAAAAAHAHAHAHAHAHA
>I'm 5'7
HE'S TRYING TO DIG HIS WAY OUT OF THE PIT!
I'm only 5'8" and every broom or shovel or rake feels like it's meant for a child and I have to hunch over and wreck my back in 5 minutes or squat like a weirdo and have to waddle around.
Same. I think it's a function of armspan.
Did you not use tools as a child? Never helped your father plant a tree, dig a ditch? If you had, you'd know that they're sized they way they are for good reason. Bigger is not better. It's more comfortable to lean into your work a bit, at least when you're used to it and not aching because you're tight and stiff from sitting.
Brooms are for women to use
Your mom is for me to use.
Hell, I'll use your whole family like a broom. And the dog too.
>letting a woman use your broom
She better have her own.
Even worse is buying fiskars lifetime warranty handle pick and the head has just a tiny bit of play in it, obviously rotating slightly on their omnirivet connection system. Which you would think is a minor issue except it makes almost every swing, lever or chop slightly less efficient and uncertain.
>he doesnt dig a test hole before buying
ngmi
I dont know how it works in your country you moronic leaf but where the location I purchase my tools from has a solid slab concrete floor which isnt conducive to prepurchase test excavations.
Not with that attitude it isn't...
If your mattock can't even smash through a solid concrete slab, then I don't know what to tell you.
That is why you purchase the combi deal of break hammer and shovel.
>The inseparable riveted head will not slide down or snap off, even when swinging with maximum force
returning a whole pick to replace a handle is utterly cucked.
and their website has insufferable dogshit 'load more' instead of normal pagination.
frick i tought they were an ok company, i have scissors that have a hard molded plastic cover for the blades that i cherish.
of course you swing it over your head morons itt lol. op get some hard wood make your own if you like, but the closer you lift it to the head the easier and faster you can go, have you actually tried it?
Yea the short handle is annoying
because it was developed and desinget to be used by dwarfs you dolt
dwarfs were doing all the nigging back in the old days and for them these are perfect
conclusion: find yourself a dwarf
I knew there had to be a simple answer for what I was doing wrong.
I've never had a problem with it other than things related to armspan, like carrying a large ungainly object, getting your arms around it, keeping it up off the ground. That's the only place I've run into height being a detriment.
>That's the only place I've run into height being a detriment.
It is also a disadvantage in melee combat.
>melee combat
This is a man that has never been in a fight.
that's why all the bigger animals are afraid of the smaller ones
>melee combatant comes at me
>pick him up
>punt him like a football
psssh, nothing personnell manlets
youi has a problem getting a womans you manlet little baby
Projection.
you know they sell pick handles, right? just spend thirty bucks on a new handle and wedge lol
>Lol if that 36" handle is too short for you just go buy a new 36" handle.
Don't be moronic
https://www.easydigging.com/digging-tools/pick-mattock.html
I quite liked that site, thanks.
Bought picrel ($3 or $4) at an estate sale about with inspiration from this thread. Used it today for about 15 minutes and worked incredible well. Chopped through some 2" roots with both edge and didn't require overhead swinging. Shoulder level in a bent forward position perhaps. Check out those safety nails.
Why don't you make and sell a 48" white man version then?
Buy a head and make the handle that suits you the best
I'm 4'8" and find a 36" handle to be perfectly acceptable for a mattock
OP here. I just went and bought a decent mattock head and a typical 36 inch pickaxe handle. Used it extensively the last few days, worked fine when I got used to it.