PURPOSE: To obtain a papery material having high-class Japanese papery appearance in which nep parts appear on the surface by subjecting a mixed fiber web of silk staple fiber having neps and low-melting synthetic fiber to thermal fusing treatment.

CONSTITUTION: Silk staple fiber, having neps and contained in fly wastes produced in silk spinning or silk noil yarn spinning, is mixed with side-by-side type or sheath-core type conjugate fiber composed of a low-melting component such as a polyester-based, a polyamide-based polymer or various modified polymers or copolymers and a polymer of the same or different kind having a higher melting point than that of the aforementioned low-melting component, and then carded to provide a weblike material. The resultant weblike material is then pressed and heat-treated at a higher temperature than the melting point of the low-melting component in the above-mentioned conjugate fiber. Thereby, at least part of entangled parts of the silk staple fiber having the neps with the conjugate fiber are fused to afford the objective papery material.