Waterproof Journals 

Karst Stone Paper Review

How is stone paper different from normal paper? Is it worth it?

❯❯ Here’s the full Karst stone paper notebook review!

Pen, markers, watercolor, charcoal, coloring pens, burning. I tried everything I would do with normal paper.

What is stone paper?

Stone paper is made from limestone powder and resin. The innovative material is truly different from normal paper, yet it can be used (almost) the same.

To learn more about stone paper, read the full article here.

First impression

I have ordered the hardcover and softcover notebook and a small journal.

Opening the journal, the pages feel quite floppy, not as stiff as normal paper. With the softcover notebook, you can feel it the most, while the hardcover and the smaller journal are more stable.

The smell is different too: More like plastic or a specially coated magazine paper.

The journal’s covers are out of vegan leather and pages have a thickness equivalent to 144g paper, but they are heavier. And they are bright white, a very neutral tone.Journals are stitch bound.

All 3 come with a back pocket. The Notebooks additionally come with a divider ribbon and an elastic strap.

How does stone paper perform? What’s different compared to normal paper?

To find out, I have put it to the test, doing what I would do with normal paper too:

Pen

It only took me half a page to write on my stone paper journal to absolutely fall in love with the way it feels to write with a pen!

The surface is incredibly smooth. Ink rolls perfectly off the pen.

Even though the paper feels less thick than normal paper (fewer fibers, thus faster indents), there is absolutely no bleed-through.

For writing and sketching, it takes a bit to get used to using less pressure and still have perfect lines.

Ink dries fast with ballpoint pens. However, using them in combination with markers or highlighters, you must wait a few minutes longer until the risk of smearing the writing lowers.

A workaround I start to use more and more for highlighting headlines: I first use the highlighter and write on it with a pen.

❯❯ All in all: Amazing for note-takers and sketchers!

Pencils, colored pencils, and wax crayons

It was interesting to first use those drawing utensils on stone paper: Again, this buttery smooth feeling and colors pop off the page immediately.

But then the usual look of grain is missing. Instead, with very little pressure, colors are bright and homogeneous. The pencil is distributed perfectly even.

❯❯ If you go for more graphical drawings with large areas in the same color, this could become your dream paper.

❯❯ If you expect the grain of a good drawing paper, stay away!

By the way: Erasing works perfectly fine. Not any different from a good paper.

However, beware that erasing inside journals or notebooks, you might have outdents of the eraser crumbles pages after.

❯❯ As for pens, you definitely need to experiment the first time and learn how to work with the paper. It simply is a little different than normal copy- or drawing paper.

What seemed to be the case with pencils as well as wax crayons is that the paper gets saturated quite quickly. Because there is less surface with that smooth finish, the maximum of material applied is reached a lot faster than with the natural grain of normal paper. Drawing over the same spot with a different color, the 2nd color isn’t applied that well or at all (as you can see in the picture below where I tried to go over light green with the dark green in the top right corner). Layering will be difficult.

❯❯ Conclusion: Either use this behavior on purpose or use normal paper.

Markers and watercolor

Stone paper is waterproof, how amazing – no bleeding through. At all!

It’s a lot of fun using markers in the Karst journals, not having to worry about destroying the previous or coming pages.

However, the different material properties also lead to different results – in a good and in challenging ways.

Colors also with markers and watercolors are unusually vibrant.

When using markers for design drawing or drawing larger areas in the same color, the darker you go, the more you will see strokes. And if you try to go over the same area again and again (which on marker paper creates perfect results), the ink is forming clouds fast.

The same effect you get with watercolor. Having a paper that doesn’t soak at all, watercolor behaves quite differently and takes 30min to a few hours to dry. Layering doesn’t work well because all material stays ON the paper (nothing is soaking into the paper so you take everything back up with a wet brush). Clouds form even with just one wide stroke. What works excellent on the other hand is splashes and wet-in-wet where you want that fluid look.

Again here:

❯❯ If you are searching for a sketchbook that doesn’t bleed through or for a paper that embraces drops, splashes, and flowing ink, stone paper might be what you were searching for. Don’t use it in hope of getting the same results as with your current paper.

Charcoal

The smooth surface of stone paper is a perfect ground for charcoal to distribute evenly and saturated. Blending is easy and smooth. As with markers, you tend to see strokes and directions quite well; the darker the better.

Fixating with spray went at least as well as with drawing paper. I assume, since there is no grain, it’s easier for the spray to coat the full surface.

❯❯ Like with the other drawing tools, there will be differences in drawing on stone paper compared to normal paper. If you are curious to find different materials to draw on, it might be interesting to try. Also, if you are searching for the smoothest drawing paper without grain, stone paper is the solution!

Folding, crumbling, tearing, and burning

No grain means no resistance to folding.

❯❯ Folding is very precise and because it’s so tear-resistant, I expect stone paper to perform better in Origami than normal paper. But put it to the test yourself, I only did a few quick and easy folding tests.

Speaking of tear-resistance: It feels strange to tear stone paper! A lot more force is needed than with normal paper and when it does tear, it’s a plasticky feel, edges are slightly curling and it’s hard to control the course that tear takes.

❯❯ I guess this characteristic could be used to confirm if a paper really is stone paper. Otherwise, I don’t see an additional use or advantage compared to normal paper.

Yes, the paper burns, even though it’s made from stone. Like with tearing, a mixture of regular paper and plastic would describe it best: The color is the same as burning normal paper, however, the way it deforms resembles plastic. This is not surprising, knowing that the stone powder in the paper is bound with resin (= plastic).

❯❯ Heating stone paper will deform it fast and I assume the resin inside the stone paper should not be burnt, just as any treated paper.

Lastly, crumbling this silky-smooth paper over and over gives a satisfying texture with fine wrinkles. Nice to look at and with a feeling a lot like Tyvek (Tyvek is a synthetic material similar to paper, used for example in construction and for extra resistant envelopes).

The big questions: Is Karst’s stone paper really 100% waterproof?

Yes it is!

I’ve poured a glass of water over my journal. After drying overnight, the journal was the same as it was before.

No wavy pages!

Very impressive!

The water also didn’t get soaked in between the other pages.

The only thing that did happen was that the ink of a felt tip pen got washed away.

So this is the notebook for you if you’re out sketching in all kinds of weather or if you carry your journal everywhere you go.

Conclusion: You get a paper with new material properties – use them!

It was interesting to test this new kind of paper. Strangely familiar and unfamiliar at the same time.

Some techniques/ways of use will work better than with every other paper out there, others don’t work at all:

I found that writing and any other movements across the paper with all utensils feel extremely smooth, light, simply good. Colors pop.

But indents from writing on previous pages or outdents from eraser residuals or dirt can happen fast.

❯❯ Don’t expect stone paper to be exactly the same as paper from trees.

Rather choose it for one of its advantages and make use of the new material properties.

Work creatively WITH the material and you might fall in love fast.

I will happily fill my journals with my everyday notes, and pen-and-marker sketches.

Read more about stone paper

Where I got my notebooks from