Shive

A shive is a wooden or plastic fitting used in ale casks. It is found on the curved side of the cask, arranged so that when the cask is on its side and the keystone is at the lowest part of the rim, the shive will be the highest point of the cask.

The hole in that part of the cask is used for two purposes. Firstly, it is used for cleaning out and then refilling the cask, which requires a large hole. Once the cask arrives at its destination, the hole is used to control the amount of carbon dioxide present in the container, which requires a small hole. The shive is effectively an adaptor that reconciles these conflicting requirements. It is a wooden disk, larger than a keystone, that fits in the hole in the cask and has a smaller hole in its centre.

For washing and filling, the old shive is removed using a chisel or a special tool, revealing a hole around 3 inches (7.5 cm) across. Once the cask has been filled and fined, a new shive is hammered into place. The hole in the centre of the shive will be sealed with a small wooden or plastic peg. The cask is then transported to the pub.

Shive (disambiguation)

Shive may refer to:

Shive (papermaking)

A shive is a small bundle of incompletely cooked wood fibres in the chemical pulp used in papermaking. They are smaller than knots and are more difficult to separate from the pulp. Typically the content of shives in kraft pulp is 0.1 to 1.0%. An excess of shives is a sign of poor impregnation of the wood chips. Shives are separated from the pulp in the screening and can be added back after refining. Even though shives are darker than rest of the pulp, they may pass unnoticed to the paper machine because they are easily bleached. Shives in the paper machine can cause web breakage or other operational problems. They might also end as spots in the finished paper.

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