I was raising mining on a new char today and i tried to raise some skills to get to the 700 cap. Every time i used a skill (i tried anatomy, hiding, item id, armslore) i could not use the shovel until the skill timer reset. This is consistent across all 3 accounts, other items seem unaffected and work normally (fishing pole, dagger, instruments)
i noticed this a few weeks ago battle mining!!! it's crazy but most likely shouldn't be that way? unsure. it's up there with lumberjack gains (possibly dmg bonus) while fighting with pickaxes
A change was implimented a while ago that made it that way, it escapes me what it was. I notified telamon about this issue almost a year ago, I'd be surprised to see it changed anytime soon.
This came with the change which removed the capability to read sysmessages from mining/LJ. It has something to do with that change and how the use of the objects ties to skills. The other place people see it is in home security; they detect hidden and then try to axe their barrel but have to wait. You can work around that one by chopping the barrel first and then DH.
