Pickaxe dimensions

[rob love]

I have always differentiated the British pick from the US pick by the extra shank on the pick axe head for the US one, vs the no shank on the British one. As Lynn mentions, the British one has the metal reinforced handle at the head, and a ring on the bottom. The US handle is all wood and larger diameter.

I have found that pretty much any Canadian made vehicle that has a brackets for the pick axe, used the British pattern of pick axe head and handle. I had not noticed before that the pick axe in the photo of the cmp tool layout is a US pattern version.

A surplus store in Calgary Alberta had hundreds of the WW2 Cdn pick axe heads and dozens of the handles, all to the British pattern.

In the 1950s, the Canadian military went to the M-series vehicles (aside from the Centurion, the Ferret, and the Triumph Motorcycle) and the US pattern pick became the norm. When I was still in the service, you would get the odd WW2 Cdn pick axe head mixed in with the US ones when ordered from supply.