Laterite Soil, Stone & the Pick-axe

 

Laterite Soil, Stone & the Pick-axe

Laterite soil is found all along the Konkan Coast - Goa, Karnataka, Kerala, and also in Tamil Nadu, Madhya Pradesh and the hilly regions of Orissa and Assam. Laterite soil and rock is rich in iron and aluminium in hot and wet tropical areas.

Vegetables and cashew trees grow on soft laterite hills. Laterite stones, widely  used in construction are acquired from rock quarries along hillsides and carted away to building sites. 

Master artisans, skilled in the art of stone carving, have a special bond with the pick-axe and the stone. 

The Goan 'Picaas' (Pick-axe) is a mid-sized implement for a lot of big-sized jobs.

Forged by professional local master craftsmen and iron-smiths of yesteryear, the pick-axe is a handy tool used in many village households, and also in the construction and agricultural sector in Goa. It was mainly used in stone quarries for cutting out and  shaping the initial rough forms of commonly used laterite stones and for building houses, schools, churches, temples, bridges, river-side embankments, forts, government and commercial buildings, compound walls, culverts, and especially for cutting wedged shapes and circular segments used for arches and round wells by professional masons. The axe can be used for hoeing, skimming, and chopping through tree roots. 

This tool is generally T-shaped. Its head is typically metal,

attached perpendicularly to a longer wooden handle. It has a pointed end on one side of its head and a broad flat blade opposite. A gradual curve characteristically spans the length of the head which gives it the advantage in leverage  -  both for breaking and prying from both ends.