Kill That Bush!

Adze:  A cutting tool that has a curved blade set at a right angle to the handle and is used for shaping wood.
Pickaxe:  A heavy iron tool with a wooden handle; one end of the head is pointed, one has a chiseled edge.
Mattock:  An agricultural tool whose blades are at right angle to the body, similar to a pickaxe.

I wonder if there is anything else in the world that is "similar to a pickaxe?"  Would would something diametrically opposed to a pickaxe be?

Three young men were working for a landscape company one summer to earn money for school or maybe for beer.  It was hard manual labor, dull in every aspect, but they were young men, easily amused and able to labor in the heat and humidity with lots of bitching but little real complaint.  Also, very little money but beer money, anyway.

One day they were given the task of removing some unwanted shrubbery.  Bored, they devised a game to make the task more enjoyable.  A physical competition, really, a game of strength, common among young men.  They decided to call the game Kill That Bush.  The rules to Kill That Bush were very simple: Killing the bush in question in under a predetermined number of strikes using a non-power tool of one's choosing.

A match would proceed like this . . . 

They young men would ponder the bush, examining it from different angles, speculating on the depth and strength of its roots, eyeing its size.

Young man #1:  "I can kill that bush in five swings."
Young man #2:  "I can kill that bush in four swings."
Young man #3:   "I can kill that bush in three swings."
Young man #1 (screaming):  "Kill that bush!!"

At this point young man #3 would have to remove the shrubbery in three swings.  Sometimes he could do it and sometimes he couldn't.  I suppose there was a payoff to the competition - beer or dope or something - but that isn't important at this point.

In one contest the bidding got all the way down to two swings before the others deferred.  It wasn't a very big bush but killing it in two swings is pretty righteous.  The young men pondered the bush.

"Adze?" one of them asked.
"An adze is a woodworking tool," one of them answered.
"I think a pickaxe," another remarked.
"Sure, a pickaxe," came the reply.  "But why not the mattock?"

This suggestion - being a good one - was met with general approval and was duly adopted.  The young man circled the bush, calculating angles and root placement, speculating, figuring.  His first swing was a mighty one, separating most of the roots from the bush and nearly lifting it out of the ground.  There were shouts of admiration, speculation that two swings - almost a hole in one - might be enough.  Sure enough, his second swing lifted the bush out of the ground.  He held the mattock high in the air for a long moment, then flipped it away.  Babe Ruth admiring the flight of a home run, bat in hand, strolling toward first base, before dropping his stick.

"It's over, it's over!" shrieked the young men.