So with regular paper out of the way, it's time to concentrate our efforts on the all-weather paper... at least in regards to wetness. After soaking the papers for a full hour, I pulled them out for another round. The pencil was for all intents and purposes identical to the 5-minute test. Same strength, no visible fading, still wrote just as easily. Nothing to see here, move along. The words one hour on the all weather paper, with some test scribbles beneath.
The regular pen was much the same. It still took the ink just as readily as the 5-minute test. There doesn't appear to have been any noticeable bleeding of the ink from previously, either. All in all, 1 hour appears to do the exact same as 5 minutes. The pen test, with little to no difference between the last two test.
Ahh, gel-pen. I know YOU'RE not fond of wetness. The original writings held on perfectly, not bleeding out at all. The 5-minute section is cleaned up a bit, since the gel that was suspended in the drops of water washed away during the next dunking. It once again bled into the nearby droplets almost instantly, but didn't fail to leave its mark after an hour. It was predictably lighter than when written on dry, but all in all, not all that different from 5 minutes. The gel pen paper, with one hour and a scribble written on it, slightly lighter than the five minute line.
The silver gel pen showed us that there's some variation however. All of the previous writing held on the exact same, but it really wasn't fond of writing on the paper after it had been soaking for an hour. The squiggle is barely visible, and the rest of it is very faint. It bled into nearby droplets when writing again, but it was just a lot more reluctant to write in general. A very faded silver gel pen on the test strip.

Seeing as one hour wasn't enough to do anything thorough to writing ability (aside from the silver pen lightness issue), I kicked the next test up to 8 hours. All previous and current writing was again, virtually identical to previous iterations, although the pen felt like it was writing on ever so slightly mushier paper. You can see that the dark image printed on the backside of the strips is starting to show through (see the white strip to the left of "AW" where the was nothing printed). Only the slightest hint of bleeding with the ink, but otherwise fine. The eight hour test, with basically identical results to the hour and five minute tests.
In a bizarre occurance, the silver pen returned to working! Perhaps it just couldn't get a good 'start' in the one-hour test. In either case, silver bled into the paper and surrounding water moreso than previous. The gel was much the same... bleeding into puddles, writing lightly on the paper. Previous writings of both didn't bleed at all. Again, the printout on the back is starting to show through here as well. The test strips with blurry looking eight hour test, due to the water droplets.

Seeing as there's been little difference in the past few test, I upped the next one to 38 hours in the water. The pencil still stubbornly did what it does best... write perfectly clear, and all previous writings remained perfect. The ink appears to have possibly bled out as far as it's going to for previous writings, and could still be easily written on. The printout on the back is showing through more still. The test strips with all of the text appearing identical.
The gel-pen continued to do what it always does... bleed into puddles and implant a bit onto the paper. The silver was a surprise though. The previous writing that looked so clear... almost vanished. Same with the 1-hour. It was almost impossible to get it to write anything whatsoever for the 38-hour mark. It's clear that the silver gel pen is unable to stand up to the other pens as good. The original writing still remained locked within the paper however, refusing to fade. The text is still fine beneath the water droplets though.

And here is the final test I'm running for this wetness test... over one week later. 176 hours of soaking in water. The pencil and pen held up admirably, seeming to be barely affected. They both still wrote fine, and the previous ink all still remained intact. However, with the pen it had a bit of trouble getting started, so the word "week" didn't quite come out clearly. Once I did the swirls however, it was all fine and good again. Clearly, this paper is meant to last. The one week test looking still almost identical to the previous tests.
These pens fared a lot worse. The gel predictably bled into the puddles, but the 38-hour gel was mostly faded, and the 8-hour was starting to go. After many hours of soaking, it looks like the ink that soaked into the paper was slowly starting to escape it. Some bits held firm (the "rs" of the 8-hour, most of the original where it perhaps had longer to dry before being dunked again), but lots was just slowly disappearing. The silver pen was useless. The 'dry' writing was still there, but the first 'wet' writing was barely visible, and everything thereafter was gone. Attempting to write on it at this point ws almost impossible... the pen just refused to begin writing. I got a "1" and a few specks of ink here and there... but nothing readable. This pen definitely wasn't made to stand up to wetness. More or less just showing off ink bleeding into water droplets, though much of the second strip is faded away to nothing.

So since the paper is doing so well here, let's give it the ultimate wetness test. We all know that a paper in your pocket will turn into a tiny ball of garbage when run through a washing machine/dryer. I think it's time we put that to the test. Getting another sheet of paper, I wrote with all four pens the 'before' writing, and then did my laundry. As with any other scrap of paper, I put this one into the front-right pocket of a pair of pants and started my laundry. The washer takes 37 minutes to complete its cycle. A larger rectangle of paper with pre-washing machine written on it in the four writing utensil types.
Strangely, the paper didn't ball up. At all. Unless all of the wringles and creases were stretched away during the spin-cycle or something. When I went to get my laundry, the paper was out of the pocket and sitting folded up a few times on the bottom of the washing machine. The first three lines read clearly, but the silver obviously couldn't take the washing. It was still visible if you looked very closely, but for all intents and purposes it was useless. There was no bleeding of the others into the paper at all, either. Then again, all other sheets were holding up fine after an hour, so let's see if the dryer cycle helps us out at all. The dryer cycle is a full hour long. I set it to 'high'. The same paper with post-wash, pre-dry written on it, with slightly blurry text.
I almost expected some tearing out of the paper, but no... it dried perfectly fine. It was definitely more crinkly that the original paper, and I had to kinda fold the top half-cenitmeter over to get it to sit flat. However, all of the original writing was still there. I had figured the tumbling would have rubbed some off, but evidently not. Even the very faint original silver was still visible. All inks from after the was where still there, although the ink bled just slightly, and the gel slightly more. The silver faded a bit, but not as much as the first writing. Writing on it after drying was unsurprisingly identical to writing on unworked all-weather paper. The paper with post-drying written on the back of it, it being slightly wrinkled, but with the text writing fine.


The wetness test (part 1) | The crumple test


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