the fiber pretreated again the fiber was once dried western softwood kraft intended for ultimate use as linerboard this is shown graphically in fig2 for treatment levels of 0 25 0 30 and 0 40 based on total recombined furnish a cationic pae wet strength resin was used in all cases for the two higher levels of use a marked minimum amount of repulping rejects is noted at a pretreatment level of about 20 the effect does not appear as dramatic for the lower level of pae use while the present inventors do not wish to be bound to any particular reason for this behavior the following explanation is suggested when only small amounts e g 5 of the pulp is pretreated there appears to be an excess amount of cationic resin for attachment at available anionic sites on the fiber the excess remains free and is then available for reaction with the fiber that had been withheld when the two portions are recombined stated otherwise the pretreated fiber is treated with the resin to saturation but the entire balance of the fiber is also treated albeit to a lower degree in effect the entire product has had wet strength treatment as would be expected the effect is more noted as the amount of resin used in pretreatment is increased at the high end of pretreatment e g about 40 so much of the fiber has been reacted with the resin that the ultimate product will also have achieved an excessively high initial level of wet strength so that repulpability suffers it must be kept in mind.