Luke Grainger : A late Welcome to
Permies.com and our sister site
Richsoil.com, on another thread I Caught that you are down under someplace!
Darn, I had two answers for you depending if you were eastern or western North America. Lets take care of the confusion and the paperwork, O.K.? look at the
space around your name, and L@@K at mine !
Below is a link to help new members get the most out of this site start here please :
https://permies.com/t/43625/introductions/Universal
So Our east coast the mattock head and the handle are permanently joined, usually they stay to gather until the handle is damaged when it rather than the mattock
hits the ground, when that happens eventually you have to replace the handle !
Western coast mattocks and picks had handles that detached from the Tool Head for packing on a pack animal into 'the Interior' and are only supposed to be a friction
fit !
As long as the handle head has not started to mushroom you should be able to use it that way a long time!
Though some mattocks and picks are now showing up on the market that are not meant to have the handle replaced those usually have fiberglass handles ! I don't
like them or use them!
If nothing else works you can soak the handle and tool in water to swell the wood fibers, but this is a stop gap until you replace the handle ! Good luck ! Big AL