AbstractUsing standard laboratory procedures it was found that different pulp types showed very different recycling effects. Mechanical pulp fibres became flatter and more flexible giving a denser, stronger sheet. Beaten chemical pulp fibres “hornified”, resulting in a bulkier, weaker sheet. Unbeaten chemical pulp fibres were initially curly; recycling removed the curl. A mechanical/chemical pulp blend revealed that these effects occur at different rates. In no case was there evidence of fibre strength loss, or of fibre embrittlement. In these laboratory experiments, fines loss during sheetmaking affected the magnitude of the sheet properties, but not the trends.