Pistons cannot be mined faster using a pickaxe than using bare hands, even though their material is stone. This is not consistent with other stone products: e.g. cobble walls are also mined faster using pickaxes.
Linked issues
relates to 3
Comments 34
24 more comments
Could not test in 19w38a, due to the game crash of MC-161268 before the breaking animation even takes place.
slicedlime
Same applies to glass, beacons, conduits, sponges, sea lanterns, redstone lamps, glowstone, hay bales, cake, turtle eggs, cacti, and beds (all tested).
(I would expect to mine beds and cacti faster with an axe, to mine glass, beacons, conduits, sea lanterns, redstone lamps, and glowstone faster with a pickaxe, and to mine hay bales, kelp blocks, and sponges faster with shears. Most of these "features" are intentional for no good reason, but cake and turtle eggs may not need a tool to mine them since there is basically no reason to do so, unless you want to grief, or collect turtle eggs with silk touch. See MC-11992)