Bulletproof Ink For Teslin Synthetic Paper?

[Medsen Fey]

I am testing out some Teslin synthetic paper. It is interesting stuff. Ink dries very quickly on it, and the stuff is waterproof. It is a plastic-like material but has a surface that is easy to write on with fountain pen ink.

 

However, though it is waterproof, since it isn't cellulose, the typical bulletproof inks aren't really bulletproof. Noodler's bulletproof black will come right off with a little bleach. So will Kung Te Cheng, and Platinum Pigment Blue, and Sailor Kiwa Guro. These are among the most durable inks I know of when used with "normal" paper.

 

Has anyone tested any inks that will stay on Teslin?

[Inkling13]

Graphite pencil. For an ink to stay on this kind of synthetic paper, it needs to dry and leave a waterproof film behind, or chemically bind to the material itself. Kiwa-guro and other pigment inks are composed of carbon that is embeded in the fibers. The bulletproof inks react with the cellulose in the paper/cotton of your paper. For an ink to leave a film, AND be waterproof, you'd be looking at something that is a nightmare to clean out of a dried feed/nib, aka something like india ink. I'd leave this "paper" to the space pens, grease pencils and graphite pencils out there.

[dcwaites]

You might have to blend your own. Since it has a plastic media, you will need a carrier that will dissolve or bond to the plastic base. Then, if you mix into that a dye that is soluble in that carrier, or a pigmented ink that the solvent can bond to the plastic, you might have a viable ink.

However, you will need to make sure the solvent isn't too hazardous (all organic solvents are hazardous to some degree), and you would need to use a fibre-tip or dip pen.

 

Just using a Sharpie-type pen will give you a waterproof mark, but it won't be bulletproof, solvents will remove it.

 

Standard pigmented drawing ink in a drafting pen (like the Rotring Pens and matching inks) might be your best bet.

[Tweel]

Is fountain pen ink on Teslin in fact waterproof? That alone would be interesting.

[Inkling13]

Is fountain pen ink on Teslin in fact waterproof? That alone would be interesting.

I would doubt that, especially with no substrate. Just think, if you had a pen with ink it it that dried and became waterproof? I'd be afraid...

[Medsen Fey]

Is fountain pen ink on Teslin in fact waterproof? That alone would be interesting.

 

Yes, it would be interesting. Some testing may be in order.

 

The Titanic Teslin Tenacity Test (try saying that 5 times fast)

 

Phase I - Water.

I took a variety of inks that I have on hand as bottles and samples and wrote them on 3 sets of Teslin paper and let them sit overnight. They were dry as soon as I was finished writing (please - no rude jokes or comments on the crappy penmanship or the quality of the scanner). I will keep one as the control and then can abuse the other two sets at will to see what happens.

 

So after sitting overnight, I took a set of the Teslin papers and put them in a bucket of water for 12 hours. The results can be see in the image. The samples on the right were soaked in water. Most of the inks did quite well. A few have some color shifting and a little bleeding, and only two of them really faded out. I think it clearly shows that the writing on Teslin resists water pretty well even for some non-waterproof inks.

 

 

Next I'll take this same sheet and soak it with some bleach. By the way, when wet, the teslin sheets like to stick together, but once it dried out, the teslin was just like it had never been wet. You can write on it without problems, and other than the effect on the ink, you'd never know it had been wet.

Edited February 15, 2014 by Medsen Fey

[Medsen Fey]

Phase II- Bleach

 

I took the sheets which were previously soaked in water and soaked them for twelve hours in a bucket of bleach. The images on the Left side are the controls. As the image shows, the two inks with the best performanc are Platinum Pigment Blue, and Noodlers Bad Green Gator. Some of the others remained readble but were quite faded.

 

When I had tried a prior quick-test, I left a sheet soaking in bleach for longer and in that example, the Platinum Pigment Blue eventually faded, but the Green Gator stayed. In that quick-test I did not allow the inks time to dry overnight before dunking them in the bleach and perhaps that is why the Platinum Pigment Blue seems to be performing better thist time. Thus far, the Bad Green Gator seems to be "bulletproof" in both trials, and at the moment, if I had to recommend an ink for permanence on Teslin paer, the Green Gator would be it.

 

Being a Hurricane alum from the University of Miami, I can't tell you how much it pains me to recommend ANYTHING related to a Gator (the University of Florida mascot) but there it is.

 

[wallylynn]

well, your test clearly demonstrates that the standard cellulose bonding isn't occurring, not that I'm surprised. I am a little surprised that the kiwaguro also didn't work.

 

have you tried any non-fp pens? many gel inks are quite robust. how about uniball's super ink?

[Medsen Fey]

The Kiwa-guro may not have been given sufficient time to dry before testing. I'll see if I can do a repeat.

I haven't tried any ball pens yet (or a sharpie).

[Medsen Fey]

The Titanic Teslin Tenacity Test (continued)

 

So I tested a few more inks that I had sample of, and also tested a Sharpie marker, and a ballpoint pen (a cheap plastic one that my wife had handy, and I don't know which brand of ballpoint ink). I also included the "winners" of the first round of testing to see if this was repeatable. All of the inks tested did well soaking for 12 hours in a bucket of water. There was a little color shifting and some bleed through with the water soak, but all of the inks were clear and readable.

 

I then did the 12-hour bucket-o-bleach soak.

 

As you can see, even the ballpoint pen didn't survive. The Sharpie faded but remained. Of the fountain pen inks, the only one that reliably stays on the "paper" is Noodler's Bad Green Gator. The Platinum Pigment Blue is a distant second, and the Sailor Kiwa-Guro Black is an even-more-distant third.

[Medsen Fey]

Well I am happy to have found at least one fountain pen ink that I can use on this water-proof paper with confidence that it will not come off. If anyone has any other inks that they would like to see tested on this Teslin material, feel free to PM me and send me a sample. If anyone finds any other inks that will be bulletproof on this material, please post up the info here - I'd love to have some other options.

Edited March 2, 2014 by Medsen Fey

[Tweel]

Thanks for the tests! That's great.

[Medsen Fey]

YIPPEE!!!

I finally found a non-green ink that seems to stay on Teslin even when bleached. Organic Studio's Isaac Newton, a black ink, survived the bleaching. I'm happy to have something other than GATOR ink to use that will stay on the "paper." I may try a few more tests on these inks that hold up to bleaching to see if they tolerate some other harsh exposures and perhaps a fade test.

 

For the results see below:

[Medsen Fey]

So I tried Bad Green Gator and the Organic Studio Isaac Newton with a soak in PBW (Powdered Brewery Wash - A sodium percarbonate cleaner that forms hydrogen peroxide and sodium carbonate in aqueous solution). The Green Gator survived, but the Isaac Newton faded out and became unreadable. It looks like the Bad Green Gator is still the one bulletproof ink for this paper.

[Medsen Fey]

Side note - after being removed from the PBW, as the Teslin paper dried it shrunk to 1/2 of its original size. Apparently the PBW affects it rather significantly. The writing remains clear.

[dcwaites]

Side note - after being removed from the PBW, as the Teslin paper dried it shrunk to 1/2 of its original size. Apparently the PBW affects it rather significantly. The writing remains clear.

 

That shrinkage is probably a significant indication that someone has tried to mess with your document...

[yogalarva]

Side note - after being removed from the PBW, as the Teslin paper dried it shrunk to 1/2 of its original size. Apparently the PBW affects it rather significantly. The writing remains clear.

 

Pics or it didn't happen! :-P

[Medsen Fey]

Oh ye of little faith...

Who has time to make stuff up just to post on FPN?

[Medsen Fey]

Another ink survived the bleaching (barely). Organic Studio HMS Beagle, a nice dark blue ink. It lost its color, but remained a readable gray.

[FLZapped]

Seeing that the paper is basically plastic, you would probably need an ink that etches its way into the surface to be "bulletproof" - of course, that also means it would etch your pen.