Pickaxe

Pickaxes are one of the most commonly used tools in the game, being required to mine all ores and many other types of blocks. Different qualities of pickaxe are required to successfully harvest certain ores and blocks. For example, while stone can be mined with any pickaxe, gold ore must be mined with an iron pickaxe or better, or else the player will harvest no ore. Different pickaxes also mine many materials at different speeds (see the Speed and Durability table below). After Snapshot 12w06a Zombies have a rare chance of dropping an iron pickaxe.

Uses
The Pickaxe is used in the game to mine blocks. A Pickaxe is the only tool required to go further in the game of Minecraft, all other tools only help you achieve your goals faster. Blocks minable by the Pickaxe include, but are not limited to:

Ore Stone
 * Coal Ore
 * Diamond Ore
 * Gold Ore
 * Iron Ore
 * Lapis Lazuli Ore
 * Redstone Ore
 * Cobblestone
 * End Stone
 * Moss Stone
 * Nether Brick
 * Nether Brick Fence
 * Netherrack
 * Obsidian
 * Sandstone
 * Slabs
 * Stone
 * Stone Brick

The pickaxe does less damage to mobs compared to an axe or a sword.

Crafting
Pickaxes are crafted using 2 sticks and 3 units of a tool material:

Speed and Durability
The following table shows the time it takes to break each type of block. A block marked with a red background indicates that it cannot be harvested by that tool type. A green background indicates the quickest tool types for the corresponding block. Note that some blocks will not drop anything regardless of the tool used.

Trivia

 * Before Beta 1.2, the pickaxe had much less durability (usually half as much) and gold pickaxes acted like wooden ones.
 * The Pickaxe is featured in the "Time to Mine!" and the "Getting an Upgrade" achievements.
 * In Abandoned Mineshafts and NPC Villages, Iron Pickaxes can be found inside the chests.
 * As of Beta 1.9 Pre-release 6, obsidian is quicker to mine (from 15 to 10 seconds).
 * As of Minecraft 1.0, pickaxes and other tools make a sound when they break.
 * Most new players to Minecraft can mistake the Pickaxe for cutting down trees.