body to that when the sample is backed by a white body of 89 reflectance the results of pulping the sliced and chipped samples are summarized in table 1 below table 1______________________________________ pulp yield average fibers per coarsenesssample fiber length gram u00d7 10 sup 6 index______________________________________chipped 50 3 6 0 85 33 2sliced 52 0 8 6 83 18 1______________________________________ the results clearly show the effectiveness of fiber slicing as a means to lower the coarseness index at the same time however the average fiber length was also substantially reduced due to cross directional cutting of fibers within the sample blocks nevertheless fiber shortening was simultaneously counteracted by an increase in the number of fibers per gram the net result was a reduction in the coarseness index of from 33 2 to 18 1 table 2 shows the results of forming chipped and sliced kraft pulp fibers into handsheets which was carried out in a conventional manner well known to those skilled in the papermaking arts the properties of the resulting handsheets are set forth below table 2______________________________________ pulp yield tensile sample tensile modulus modulus opacity______________________________________1 chipped 68 102 9 7 109 79 42 sliced 72 148 8 8 174 82 33 chipped 56 321 22 8 146 86 24 sliced 60 328 20 9 163 88 15 chipped 49 474 31 7 156 63 36 sliced 50 833 39 7 218 71 8______________________________________ the results set forth in table 2 illustrate that in each case the sliced fibers increase the tensile modulus ratio this ratio is a measure of the sheet flexibility and hence softness hence the.