Beating or refining is an energy intensive process in paper industry. In India, most of the paper industries blend long fibered softwood pulps with short fibered hardwood or agro based pulps to get the paper properties of competitive level. Refining characteristics of the blend of pulps is very crucial with respect to freeness and strength properties. This study has been carried out to understand the refining behavior of three hardwood pulps and a softwood pulp. The hardwood and softwood pulps are blended in different proportions in two different ways; a) blending after their separate refining, and b) blending before refining followed by mixed refining of the blended pulps. Freeness of pulp, strength, optical and surface properties of paper along with formation have been determined and compared for both the refining methods. The fiber classification of refined pulps was also carried out to analyze the effect of refining method on fiber morphology. The mixed refining of hardwood and softwood pulps marginally affects the fiber morphology in comparison to separate refining of pulps. The strength and other properties of paper prepared from mixed refining of pulps are either better or comparable than those of separately refined pulps.