Here you see the shaft. The round handle is to the left.
That stringy thing on the right end is a thread of steel
left from cutting the end of the shaft into two parallel
pieces. That is where the two pieces in the other picture
would normally be. The hole you see lines up with the hole
in the shank, and a pin is inserted through them, welded
in place and then cut off flush. If this pin is dislodged
for whatever reason, the spade will fail, since there
will be nothing holding the shank and shaft together.