helve

varsi The handle or haft of a tool or weapon.
1917, (w), The Ax-helve:

It was the bad ax-helve someone had sold me— / “Made on machine,” he said, plowing the grain ....

The eyelet in the rose pilleum of his glans welled a clear bead that silled under the corona, wound the veinclomb helve, and ran a snailtrack down the thrum and ridge of the underduct.

Happily they were only sketchily armed, the group-leaders carried pistols and pick-helves.