I was doing an outdoor project with a friend and I said “I’ll just use the mattock” and he replied “what is a mattock?”. I picked it up and he said “oh, the pick axe”. I said “no, this is a mattock”. This little conversation got me thinking, why do they call it a mattock? Did the old farmer Mr. Mattock invent the tool to dig up roots in his garden? I decided to do a little research to dig up some answers!