Cure reactions in paper-phenolic composite systems were studied by differential scanning calorimetry. A phenomenological approach was used to characterize the cure kinetics. Various kinetic models including homogeneous reaction, diffusion-controlled reactions, surface reaction and phase boundary movement, and nucleation and growth-type kinetic models have been tested. Kinetic analyses using integral and derivative procedures on dynamic and isothermal data indicate that the cure reaction data can be described well with the homogeneous first-order reaction model or the Jander three-dimensional diffusion model. The activation energies are found to be in the range 20-40 kJ/mol.