The Wallace miner. [volume] (Wallace, Idaho) 1907-current, 1918-07-18
THE PICAROON.
Useful Mining Tool That Originated
in the Occur d'Alene District.


time ground down to such an extent
that little steel remains in the bits,
so that the cutting edge is gone and
they are of no further use as axes,
However, they should not be thrown
away, as useful mining tools known
as picaroons and picaroon- AIDES can
be made from what is left, says the
Engineering and Mining Journal.
A picaroon is probably IA new i'm
plement to most mining men, but a
useful one and better for handling
timbers or raising floors than pick.
1t has a crook, 50 that good pur-
chase can be obtained in raising a
plank when the floor has become
wedged tightly between tmbers
Owing to its hooked point, picaroon
VIII stick better in a timber when
dragging or pulling it than pick
Will. 1t is a tool for special pur-
pose, and is kept sharp. while the
pick, an implement of general use
fulness in the stope, is usually dull,
and not so well fitted for handling
timbers or lifting floors. The picar-
Don also can be used as a hammer
and is in reality nothing but a special
type of light pole pick. The type
referred to. which is made by drawing
the bit of worn out axe into a pick
point with a slight hook near the end,
. in, ttn it,a. If
the Occur d'Alene district, and it is
thought to have originated at the
Frisco mine, at Black Bear 20 years
ago.
The manner of making the picaroon
depends upon the amount of metal in
the axe head as we'll as the use to
which the tool is to be put after it is
made. That used by timbermen in
handling timbers in the stope is made
light and with a shorter point, so as
not to pull out of the timbers too
easily. Picaroons intended mainly for
lifting floors are made with longer
points and are heavier than those
used for handling timbers. No new
steel is welded into the axe metal to
make a new point but, instead, the
metal of the axe blade is drawn out
in such a manner that the bit of the
axe will form the lower part of the
point. Consequently. the lower part
stee and iron welded together in a
Eliminated manner so that it forms,
when tempered, a tough and lasting
point.
A picaroon -adze can be made from
an old axe head in a similar fashion,
but care is taken in drawing out the
metal to keep the steel of the bit well
in the lead and all the metal is pre-
served so as to give weight to the
tool. When the metal has been drawn
out to form point five inches long,
an adze bit about an inch and a half
wide is shaped tempered and ground.
A picaroon- adze will be found handy
in chopping out a timber that cannot
be removed with an axe or wood
chisel.
Both thetimber pcaroon and the
picaroon -adze are fitted with an axe
helve for handle, because it is
curved and can be gripped securely
and easily. The floor picaroon is
fitted with an old pick handle. for
this is stronger and will permit Of
much more prying without danger of
breaking while raising floors.
At the Bunker Hill & Sullivan mine,
old pick eyes, no longer heavy enough
to make good picks, are used to make
picaroons. One end of the pick is
cut off about inches from the eye,
and the other is drawn out to form a
light slightly hooked pick point which
has the same general appearance as
the point on the axe picaroon, just
described.