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.

Trading
Tool Smith villagers sell enchanted iron pickaxes for 9–11 emeralds as one of their second tier trades, and enchanted diamond pickaxes for 12–15 emeralds as one of their third tier trades. The enchantments will be the same as might be obtained from an enchantment table at levels 5–19.

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

Usage
A pickaxe is used to break stone and metal based materials faster. When a block is broken using a pickaxe, the pickaxe takes 1 damage. Pickaxes have different amounts of uses based on the type:
 * Golden: 33
 * Wooden: 60
 * Stone: 132
 * Iron: 251
 * Diamond: 1562

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 or diamond pickaxe, or else the player will harvest no ore. Different pickaxes also mine many materials at different speeds (see the speed table below).

Weapon
If you hit a mob while holding a pickaxe, it increases your attack damage. Pickaxes take 2 damage when used as a weapon. They deal different damage based on the type:

In 1.9, damage done when using a pickaxe as a weapon has decreased. Pickaxes have an attack speed modifier of -2.8, meaning they take about 0.83 seconds to recover.

Speed
The following table shows the time it takes to break each type of block.
 * A red background indicates that the block cannot be harvested with that tool.
 * A yellow background indicates that the block cannot be harvested with that tool, but still drops something.
 * A green background indicates that the block can be harvested with the tool.

Enchantments
A pickaxe can receive the following enchantments:


 * Silk Touch*
 * Efficiency
 * Unbreaking
 * Fortune*

Note: A pickaxe cannot have both Fortune and Silk Touch.

Data values
Pickaxes have an item data field to determine durability, and use five different IDs

ID
Pickaxes use their ID to determine their grade.

Item data
Pickaxes item data is used to determine the damage of the pickaxe. All pickaxes have a data value of 0 when they are fully repaired, and the value increases every time it takes damage. If a pickaxe is used when it only has one use left, it will break instead of increasing the damage. The data value of a pickaxe with only one use is different based on the type: Any higher value will act as having only one use left.
 * Golden: 32
 * Wooden: 59
 * Stone: 131
 * Iron: 250
 * Diamond: 1561

Publicity

 * Foam Stone pickaxes are official Minecraft merchandise.
 * In the game Naughty Bear: Panic in Paradise, you can buy a diamond pickaxe which, according to the game, is made by Kick it up a Notch Pickaxes, referring to Notch.
 * In the mobile game Vlogger Go Viral clicker game, after buying the figurine shelf, there will be a model of a diamond pickaxe stuck to a grass block.
 * In the game The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, you can find, a pickaxe called the "Notched Pickaxe", evidently an easter egg.
 * In the game Offensive Combat, a stone pickaxe can be used as a melee weapon with the name of "The Notch Carver".
 * In the game The Binding of Isaac, an obtainable item named "Notched Axe", also with a drawn 8-bit look, can be used to destroy rocks. The Notched Axe also makes a return in the game's remake, The Binding of Isaac: Rebirth.
 * In the game "Borderlands 2", you can find a secret area hidden away by blocks resembling Minecraft Dirt, also once inside you can fight Creeper and the Mother Creeper to get rare Minecraft-related weapons.