We're getting a pretty good picture of how this paper stands up to being wet... so let's give it a bit more of a challange... the crumple-test. How will both papers stand up to extreme crumpling? To also see how the paper would hold pencil and pen after crumpling, I began by writing on both the regular and all-weather paper while dry. This is our baseline, and later writings can be checked against it. The two paper types with uncrumpled writing dry written on both in pencil and ink.
After several minutes of vigorous crumpling and rolling around between my hands, I unrolled the balls of paper. The regular paper was getting quite torn, but was still holding up in most places. The all-weather paper didn't show any signs of tearing. It was a bit harder to crumple, likely due to being slightly thicker or denser or something, but I managed. It unfortunately started to transfer some colour from the printout on the backside of it to the front though. I was still able to easily write on both the regular and the all-weather paper, although on the regular paper, I had to try to avoid the holes in the paper. As well, when writing very close to a hole, I had to be careful not to tear it with the pencil. But due to lack of forsight, I had a quite dark picture on the back of the image, so the underside of the all-weather paper was for all intents and purposes entirely dark grey printer ink. That will be remedied later though. The two papers, heavily crumpled and flattened out again, with the regular paper having rips and tears, and the all weather holding together. The text on the regular paper held up better than on the all weather though.

Next, I tried getting the crumpled paper wet for one minute to see if it still remained writable. Almost predictably, the regular paper turned into a wet-tissue like substance. How I unballed it while wet, I'll never know. I made an attempt to write on it, but the slightest movement shredded right through it. The all-weather paper held up admirably, even though I gave it an extra crumpling after it left the water. The pen still wrote perfectly, but the pencil didn't quite show up as clearly, especially inside the deeper creases of crumpling. Still visible at least. It also held up previous writings well, for the pen at least. The old pencil began to rub away and fade, some parts of letters disappearing entirely. As well, the dark image on the back of it transfered moreso to the front. The regular paper being completely shredded and barely piece togetherable, and the all weather paper being able to flatten out better than before now. The text is still visible, though the ink has bled into the creases.

So, with regular paper finished its course, I got a fresh piece of clean all-weather paper. No printing on the back at all. I ran the same series of tests as above on it, and it seemed to hold up better, or at least more visible. THe original dry pen and pencil began to smear slightly, as it's more clear here. Strangely, the pencil held up better, but that could just be because the paper in its entirity is less grey. I only noticed the misprint now, at the bottom saying 'crumpled dry clean', which should actually be 'crumpled wet clean'. All in all, for only one minute in the water, the crumpled paper held up admirably. The same crumple test, but without that heavy printing on the backside. There is far less colour inside of the creases.

And if it holds up for a minute, let's see how it does for eight hours! Surprisingly, it did quite well actually. The written-while-wet pencil was very faded, and could only be made out on close inspection. You'd have to strain to read it, basically. The dry pencil and pen were still very readable, although the wet portion was a bit faded. This may have been from me having crumpled it about and rolling it in my hand after every soaking. It took the pen and pencil fairly readily after 8 hours (using the opposite side of the sheet at this point). I wasn't being gentle with it either... just writing like I normally would. Although, a minor hole broke through the edge of the paper, as can be seen at the top-right of the upper picture. A two part image with the dry clean and wet clean tests, and the eight hour tests on it, with the text barely visible on the eight hour test.

Stubborn paper we have here. If it holds up for 8 hours, let's see what it does after 38 hours. Again, I re-crumpled (more like balled up and rolled in my hands) the paper after taking it from the water. The original dry pencil and pen were still readable, as well as the first wet pen. The first wet pencil was virtually invisible. Only a few tiny flecks of pencil markings could be seen, but definitely not readable in the slightest. Overall, the pen seems to be slowly bleeding its way through all of the creases, especially noticeable towards the top. The tiny rip at the top of the page also appears to have grown slightly, but it was still quite strong. The 8-hour pen was very faded, and the 8-hour pencil was again, virtually gone. It however took my writing of both pencil and pen very well. Again, I wasn't being gentle with the writing. In fact, I tried to be a bit more vigorous with the pencil to kinda embed it into the paper better. It still refused to rip, and continued to take writing. The two test pieces, still stubbornly holding together.
And here we have the final crumple test... submerged in water for a full week... slightly more, technically. This has been soaking in water for approximately 176 hours now. Again, as per the rest of this test, I gave it a good crumpling/balling up after removing it from the water. Pretty much all of the old pencil is gone, except the very first dry-uncrumpled writing. The dry-crumpled pencil still shows somewhat. All of the "middle" times for the pen were unreadable at this point, and only the original dry, and strangely enough the 38-hour wet pencil remained. The paper was significantly weaker, and the pen ripped through it several times (on the "k" and the "d"). The pencil didn't rip, but the paper wasn't too fond of writing with it. Due to the weakness of the paper, it kept trying to "stretch" under the pencil (the action of which ultimately ripped under the pen). It definitely fared worse than the uncrumpled wetness test after a week, to say the least. The two test pieces, looking slightly more soaked through and blurry.


The wetness test (part 2) | The extreme temperatures test


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