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Pickaxe buying guide

Updated: October 2026

A spade that skids on the bed does not tell you which black head to buy. A pickaxe buying guide has to split a 5 lb railroad pick, a pick mattock and a 15 inch hand tool before you compare stars. On the [pickaxe comparison](/hub/digging-tools/pickaxe) the evidenced full-size pick is the Roughneck ROU64352 at about £27.29, and the evidenced hand tool is the Draper 83463 at about £16.99, listed at 400 g. Peter F. used the stored amazon.co.uk listings and public UK tool guides in October 2026. There was no lab test. A qualifying purchase can earn a commission at no extra cost to you.

A spade that skids on the bed does not tell you which black head to buy. A pickaxe buying guide has to split a 5 lb railroad pick, a pick mattock and a 15 inch hand tool before you compare stars.

Our top picks

Roughneck Roughneck ROU64352 pick axe, 5 lb

Best overall

Roughneck Roughneck ROU64352 pick axe, 5 lb
9.7/10about £27.29
View offer
Mighty Products Mighty Products 5 lb grubbing mattock

Rank 2

Mighty Products Mighty Products 5 lb grubbing mattock
9.7/10about £34.74
View offer
Draper Draper 83463 mini mattock and pick, 400 g

Best value

Draper Draper 83463 mini mattock and pick, 400 g
9.4/10about £16.99
View offer
On this page
  1. 1.What you are actually buying
  2. 2.Full-size or hand tool
  3. 3.Handle and head fit
  4. 4.What to take into the comparison

What you are actually buying

A pickaxe, in the sense Roughneck uses on its own guide, is a point and a chisel on a long shaft, sold for rocks, mortar, slabs and compacted ground. A pick mattock swaps the chisel for an adze. A cutter or grubbing mattock puts an axe face beside that adze, which is the combination UK guides point at roots and softer ground. Travis Perkins tells shoppers to match the head to the ground rather than to the word in the title. Amazon titles in this set do not keep that split. Several 15 inch tools are called a pickaxe, a hoe and a mattock in the same line. Two points, or a point and a flat chisel, means a railroad pick. A wide blade means a mattock, even when the title says pick. The roots argument lives on pickaxe vs mattock.

Full-size or hand tool

Roughneck’s guide puts a standard pick around 2.3–3.2 kg on a 900 mm shaft, and a micro around 400 g on 380 mm. Gardens Illustrated splits 5 lb, for longer work you can still manoeuvre, from 7 lb, which adds mass. UK Planet Tools points a general groundwork buyer at about 2.27 kg and keeps about 3.18 kg for rock, chalk or dense clay. None of the listings in this comparison is a 7 lb head. The full-size band here is a shaft of about 90 cm and a head sold as 5 lb, from about £27.29 to about £35.99. The hand-tool band is about 38 cm, often 400 g to about 1.5 lb, from about £11.39 to about £16.99. A 400 g mattock can open dry clay in a raspberry bed. It will not do the work of a shed base, which is the job on pickaxe for hard ground.
Roughneck Roughneck ROU64352 pick axe, 5 lb

Testsieger

Roughneck Roughneck ROU64352 pick axe, 5 lb
9.7/10about £27.29
View offer

Handle and head fit

Fibreglass is the handle this set actually sells. Roughneck describes a solid fibreglass core, which does not rot in a damp shed the way a neglected hickory shaft can. Wood still has a place on a trade pick you already own, because you can replace it. It is not the material sitting on these amazon.co.uk pages. Fibreglass does not mean the head cannot come off. Several hand tools are an interference fit, and reviewers report heads that slip. Check the fit in the first minute, on a firm floor. Strike the butt so the head seats, then try to twist the shaft. If it walks off, that listing has not given you a finished tool yet. Do not soak a fibreglass shaft and expect it to swell tight. One listing also disagrees with itself on mass: the title says 2.27 kg and a specification line says 4.16 kg. Leave that conflict visible. How to seat a two-piece handle is how to use a pickaxe.

What to take into the comparison

Take two classes into the comparison, not eleven winners. The evidenced 5 lb pick is the Roughneck ROU64352 at about £27.29. The evidenced hand tool is the Draper mini mattock and pick at about £16.99, which the listing itself limits to jobs where a full-size tool is not practical. Everything else is either another 5 lb head with a different face or another short mattock. Who each of those is for sits on the best pickaxe page. Under the Consumer Rights Act 2015 the goods have to match the description, which includes a mini that is mini and a head weight the page cannot make consistent. No British Standard for these picks is stated on the listings used here. PUWER applies when the pick is work equipment. If the ground might hide a cable, a heavier head is the wrong response.

Common questions

Is a 5 lb pick enough for a UK garden?
For a lot of garden breaking it is the weight this set actually sells, and Gardens Illustrated treats 5 lb as the head you can keep using. A raspberry bed or a tight border may not need it at all. Dense clay, chalk or rock is where UK Planet Tools points buyers at about 3.18 kg, which is a 7 lb class. That class is not in this comparison.
When is a 7 lb head worth it?
A 7 lb head is the extra mass those trade and magazine guides keep for rock, chalk or dense clay, when a 5 lb point is not moving the ground. It is worth looking at only if you can swing it and you have the room for a long shaft. No ASIN in this table is a 7 lb pick, and a conflicting kilogram line on a 5 lb title does not create one.
Will a 15 inch mattock do a shed base?
A 15 inch tool, around 38 cm and often under 1 kg, is a kneeling mattock for a bed or a short root. A shed base in baked ground is the job people describe with a 5 lb point, not with a hand hoe. If the base is the project, leave the short tools in the entry band and read the hard-ground page.
Fibreglass or wood?
Buy fibreglass if you are choosing from this amazon.co.uk set, because that is what the listings offer, and it will not rot if the shed is damp. Wood is reasonable on a pick you already own, or if you want a shaft you can replace. Neither material seats a loose head by itself. Check the eye on the day it arrives.
What if the title says 2.27 kg and the specification says 4.16 kg?
Treat that as a listing conflict, not as a range you can average. The Roughneck title in this set says 5 lb / 2.27 kg, and a specification line says 4.16 kg. Those cannot both be the head. Read the live page on the day you buy, and do not let either figure stand in for a 7 lb tool you have not ordered.

Related pages

Pickaxe

Best pickaxe UK: Roughneck top pick, Draper value

Pickaxe for hard ground: 5 lb point, not concrete

How to use a pickaxe: seat the head, then swing

Pickaxe vs mattock: point, adze or grubbing face

Sources

Public UK sources and the amazon.co.uk figures stored for this category, checked in October 2026. Shelf prices and star lines are the display figures. A higher score is not a laboratory result, and it is not a mark that the tool is safe near buried cables.

  1. Roughneck picks and mattocks guide (retrieved 20 October 2026)
  2. Travis Perkins pick axes and mattocks (retrieved 20 October 2026)
  3. Wonkee Donkee, mattock heads (retrieved 20 October 2026)
  4. HSE PUWER overview (retrieved 20 October 2026)
  5. HSE excavations (retrieved 20 October 2026)
  6. National Grid avoidance leaflet (retrieved 20 October 2026)
  7. LSBUD duty to protect (retrieved 20 October 2026)
  8. Consumer Rights Act 2015 (retrieved 20 October 2026)