The curing process of a phenolic resole was monitored with differential scanning calorimetry under nonisothermal and isothermal conditions, the curing kinetics were analyzed with a model-fitting approach and a model-free isoconversional method, and the activation energy of this phenolic system was found to be close to 46 +/- 4 kJ mol(-1). For complicated cures, the model-free isoconversional method was found to be a simpler and more reliable approach.