The existing series of folk civil contracts from Qing Kangxi to the Republic of China in Mayang Miao nationality area of western Hunan are valuable historical materials for examining the social history of western Hunan minority areas, some of which are severely damaged and require urgent protection. To develop a scientific protection scheme, some paper deeds with appearances representative of different eras are selected for the identification of raw material fibers, and the physical properties of the samples are tested. The results demonstrate that the raw material types of paper deeds are diversified, including mulberry bast, bamboo and bamboo mixed with Edgeworthia chrysantha bast. The change of paper used is affected by the mainstream development trend of the paper industry at that time. Red-dyed paper contracts only used bamboo as the base material due to its high tightness, strong water absorption and good dyeing effect. There are great differences in the types of raw materials and related physical properties of folk paper deeds. Therefore, the restoration of such archives should pay attention to the scientific detection of each paper deed for selecting the appropriate restoration paper to achieve the best protection effect.