Plural of helve; the handles or shafts of axes or hatchets.
From helve (Old English hielfe, a handle) plus -s for plural. The singular helve refers to the wooden handle of an axe, and helves is its regular plural form.
Helves is the kind of word that makes you realize English used to have a word for almost every part of every tool—axes were so important that their handles got their own special name!
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