Abstract
It is well known that Korean traditional Hanji have lots of predominant physical and optical properties such as high density, high air permeability, long lasting quality and lightness. The paper-making raw materials of traditional Korean Hanji are the bast fibre cooked from the Korean paper mulberry as a fibrous materials and sticky aqueous material from the root of Hibiscus anihot L. as additives for good dispersion of stock. Additionally, the mechanical properties of Hanji varies according to the cooking methods of bast tissues of Korean paper mulberry, the treatment methods of fibrous raw materials such as bleaching and refining, the wet formation types of sheet-making such as 'Oebal-chiji' and 'Ssangbal-choji', and the finishing treatment like stamping. This study was carried out to investigate and evaluate the quality properties of Korean traditional hand-made Hanji, and compared with commercial machine-made paper and modified prepared sheets. The physical quality comparisons of different kinds of Hanji were focused on the methods of hand-sheet making, the types of raw materials, the treatment of stamping, and the properties of ink reception and spreading.