In reply to UKC Articles:
Interesting, thank you.
The first ice axe I used was an old war department one my dad had hoarded away from somewhere or other, I seem to remember it was 85cm. It seemed ridiculously long at the time, but that's because I was trying to use it like a more modern axe, after reading modern text books. The pick was barely curved at all either. Wonder if my dad still has it.