IcePick

An icepick is a hand tool consisting of a slender, pointed steel spike attached to a handle. It is designed to concentrate force on a small point, enabling a user to chip, pry, or extract ice. Typical ice picks range from about four to eight inches in length and can be made with wooden, plastic, or metal handles. In practical use, an ice pick may be used to break apart ice blocks, remove ice from molds, or assist with lightweight ice sculpting and preparation tasks.

Historically, ice picks played a role in the era before modern refrigeration. Ice was harvested from frozen surfaces, transported to urban centers, and stored in icehouses; the ice pick aided workers in breaking, lifting, and prying blocks from ice yards and containers.

In medicine, the term ice pick is associated with the ice pick lobotomy, a controversial psychosurgical procedure developed in the 1940s and 1950s. The instrument, resembling an ordinary household ice pick, was inserted through the orbital ridge to access brain tissue, with the aim of severing connections within the frontal lobes. The technique led to a range of severe cognitive and personality changes and is now discredited and largely abandoned.

In contemporary usage, an ice pick can be described as a sharp object that could be misused as a weapon; possession and use are subject to safety and legal considerations. In some contexts, the term may also refer to the pick part of an ice axe used by climbers, which serves to grip ice in alpine terrain.