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Pilot FriXion Erasable Pens: A Comprehensive Guide
- ghawk1ns 5y agoSo how does this work if you live in a hot part of the world, and say, you leave your notebook in your car for the day.... does all your work simply vanish?
- JohnBooty 5y agoI'd definitely be interested in real-world testimony but the linked article says that the "erasure temp" is 60C/140F. Your work would hopefully not be lost forever, though, because it should reappear under -10C/14F. (Along with all the mistakes you erased, I suppose)
- jamal-kumar 5y agoI've lived between Costa Rica and California with these pens as my primary note takers and nothing like that's happened yet. Surprised to hear so many horror stories actually, maybe I should be more careful haha
- LeifCarrotson 5y agoThey're nice pens - I personally prefer the G2 gel pens - but I can't help but think of this XKCD: https://xkcd.com/1095/ https://xkcd.com/1095/ Human subcultures are nested fractally, there's no bottom.
- dcminter 5y agoIf you haven't tried them, the erasure is so complete that there's no trace of the previous writing - no ugly smudge on the paper, and they rarely if ever mess up the paper surface (at least in the Leuchterm or Moleskine notebooks that I prefer). One of those things I'd have ignored for ever if I hadn't been shown them by a fellow student on a language class. I'm a complete convert to these now. I particularly love them for scribbling ad-hoc diagrams in my notes and then being able to move things around without redrawing everything from scratch.
- J5892 5y agoJust make sure your notebooks don't get too hot.
- dcminter 5y agoI gather that one can then put them in the freezer and the ink will reappear - along with all the crossings-out of course. I've never actually tried this, but really must. Also, remember to have a normal biro or fountain pen for signing important documents!
- techsupporter 5y agoGreat, now I've blown $50 on more pens. Thanks. (tongue firmly in cheek :), though I did just finish the order.)
- JohnBooty 5y agoJetPens is such a fantastic retailer. A bit of a hidden gem. If every internet retailer was like this, the world would be a more tolerable place. Great prices, fast shipping, and they really contribute back to the community with articles such as the linked article.
- jerlam 5y agoThey must sell a lot of pens in order to afford a full time content/video creator.
- dole 5y agoJetpens and the below mentioned Goulet are two of the most popular (if not the most) pen nerd sites, not too surprising.
- deleted 5y ago[deleted]
- malfist 5y agoGoulet pens is very similar, though their focus is almost entirely fountain pens.
- jkubicek 5y agoThey have a warehouse somewhere in the eastbay, so if you're in the Bay Area, shipping is outrageously fast. Also, back when I decided to go deep on writing with pencils, I asked for suggestions on Twitter and the JetPens corporate account gave me a crap-ton of great suggestions (and I bought all of them, since most pencils are pretty cheap)
- bleair 5y agoThey are fun / nice-colors to use, but be aware that your writing can disappear over time. A friend has journals a few years old and on the right 2/3rds of the pages the writing is nearly gone (theory being maybe that side got warmer, but not certain)
- neonnoodle 5y agoTry putting the notebook in the refrigerator or freezer for a few minutes.
- aaronius 5y agoThis helped me when I was using them some years back during my university time. Managed to place some papers on a heater and the ink disappeared. Putting it in the freezer for a bit made it all come back.
- jbay808 5y agoUnfortunately, this also brings back anything you deliberately erased, which might still render some writing unreadable!
- huhtenberg 5y agoThat's a very fair warning. In a similar vein - I had recipes disappear from a notepad because it sat too close to the oven. Also printing on a paper that has something written on it with Frixion with cause these scribbles disappear without a trace. Extreme temperature sensitivity of Frixion is a very good rake.
- rahimnathwani 5y ago"printing on a paper that has something written on it with Frixion with cause these scribbles disappear without a trace" Presumably a laser printer, which heats the paper to fix the toner. Not sure an ink jet or dot matrix printer would do the same :)
- GeckoEidechse 5y ago
- drakonka 5y agoI was signing a rental contract a few years ago and pulled out my own pen. The landlord stopped me and said: "..Is that an erasable pen?" It was one of these Frixion pens. Didn't even realize what I was doing. It was funny in a slightly embarrassing kind of way.
- dheera 5y agoAren't all pens erasable with bleach though? What matters isn't that the signature exists on paper, what matters is that you actually signed it.
- JeanSebTr 5y agoThe issue is mostly that it could erase by accident.
- Sporktacular 5y agoProve it :)
- coolso 5y ago> Aren't all pens erasable with bleach though? No - pens with pigment based inks (the ones that were advertised heavily for being great for writing checks and signing documents securely with) will stick around until the bleach disintegrates the paper back into pulp.
- JohnBooty 5y agoPros: 1. The erasability is excellent. It's just as good as everybody says. If you're old enough to remember "erasable pens" from the 1980s, this is completely different. 2. Pretty good feel. Not quite as smooth as a gel pen, but it's like a nice ballpoint. 3. If you get the Japanese models from Jetpens you can get some really really fine tips, like 0.38mm 4. Great for lefties, little to no smearing. One of the best lefty-friendly pens I've ever tried. 5. I find I write/sketch more freely with these relative to regular pens, because I'm not scared of mistakes. Con: 1. They seem to dry up really quickly. A few months sitting in my desk drawer, and they lose their ability to write despite being nearly full of ink. I stopped buying them for this reason. Anybody else experienced this? Now that I'm thinking about it, I probably could have experimented more. Maybe the ball was clogged, and cleaning it with rubbing alcohol could have revived them?
- simplyaccont 5y agoi have one in my travel bag for filling immigration forms. i have same pen for 10 years or so, it's still writing.
- bschwindHN 5y agoYou probably shouldn't be using frixion pens for official documents...
- zakki 5y agoMaybe that is why he used that pen for immigration document? To make it disappears in the next couple years. No more record about him visiting the country.
- jonjon10002 5y agoI've had two (Japanese models) sitting on my desk since maybe 2015 without drying out.
- dcminter 5y agoI've not had that issue - as far as I can tell they only run out when they run out of ink. I write a lot, but I also keep a lot of spares, so I don't think it's just that I'm using them up fast enough to avoid the problem.
- ser13 5y agoI received a set of these pens (the retractable colored ones) when starting my first job out of college. I was teaching high school students. Unlike the early generations of erasable pens, these really do leave no trace on the page when erased. As a new teacher, it was excellent for grading -- students couldn't tell when I inevitably mismarked an assignment. Better still, the ink is heavy and dark, so my students couldn't tell that their assignments were graded with erasable ink. I can't recommend them highly enough as a hybrid between pencils and pens.
- dec0dedab0de 5y agoBut if they happen to see them on your desk they could start changing their grades. Though I suppose high schoolers are less likely to bring every grade home.
- chipsa 5y ago> Conversely, the ink can reappear when temperatures reach below -10°C/14°F. If they accidentally left it in a cold car, the mismarking will come back. Needs to be fairly cold though. Or a freezer.
- ameminator 5y agoI found my absolute favorite way to write is to use a Rocketbook which is explicitly designed to be used with FriXion pens and then OCR everything. It's really helped me record and then search any ideas or notes I have during the day.
- malfist 5y agoI had a rocketbook that I used for a while but scanning it in was always such a hassle. Plus I really like audio recording with my handwritten notes. I've switched to notability on an ipad with a paperlike screen protector and it's...okay. I tried the livescribe pen, but the app is hot garbage and wouldn't record audio unless the app was in the foreground and the screen unlocked. Their support recommended I disable my lock screen and sleep timer. I sent the pen back to amazon for a refund.
- sodality2 5y agoI love my rocketbook as well! I got a bunch for my friends and they absolutely loved it. I recommend the microwaveable one for frequent writers - I write 4-6 pages a day and it's inconvenient to spray them down each day. (For the unfamiliar, they are special plastic pages that feel like paper, but the ink can be wiped off with a wet microfiber towel)
- jnsie 5y agoDo you ever have issues with your rocketbook becoming more difficult to write on over time? I've had a couple now and both have gotten less usable over time (even when cleaned the ink doesn't always seem to stick, for whatever reason)
- moogly 5y agoI like these for the great writeability and never use the erasing feature. I even keep forgetting they can do that.
- slowmovintarget 5y agoWhat's funny about this is that I've gone in completely the opposite direction. I use fountain pens, with at least one inked up with archival permanent ink. Won't fade, highly water resistant, tamper resistant (changes color when bleached, but won't come off... etc.). Then again, I write work notes, journals, and fiction that I need to last through coffee spills or accidentally setting the notebook on the heater (which could easily be the bottom of my laptop when it's driving high-res monitors.
- Wistar 5y agoEver tried Noodler's Bulletproof inks? https://www.jetpens.com/blog/Noodler-s-Fountain-Pen-Inks-A-Comprehensive-Guide/pt/902 https://www.jetpens.com/blog/Noodler-s-Fountain-Pen-Inks-A-C...
- malfist 5y agoAvoid Baystate Blue!
- KennyBlanken 5y agoWhy?
- tobsterius 5y agoIt has a reputation of staining everything and notoriously difficult to clean out of some pens. Baystate Blue also seems to be a cursed ink. It's not a matter of if you drop that bottle, but a matter of when.
- malfist 5y agoIt's a vibrant blue and is an archival ink. Cannot remove it and it's impossible to miss when you stain something with it. It'll stain your fingers for days. If you drop it on a rug, or countertop or spill some while filling or cleaning a pen it's a major pain to clean up, if you can even clean it up. It also has a reputation for staining the ink reservoir of your pen and if you have a fancy demonstrator to show off the ink you'll only ever see blue and none of the fun colors you're using.
- elamje 5y agoThese are my favorite pens I've ever used. Why? - The eraser literally never runs out. I've had 1 of them for years and gone through 5+ ink refills - They actually erase well with very minimal smearing unlike the old "erasable" pens of the 2000's - Writing in ink while having the erasability of a pencil is great - The ink does disappear in high heat, but I have never lost anything important. I can almost always get it back using the freezer method Highly recommend!
- TrianguloY 5y agoThat's the pen I always used at exams at university! Maybe at bit risky, but never had any issues (and being able to fix things without using that white thingy to erase was wonderful). When a friend discovered them he used it to do a puzzle (for a home scape room). It was a crossword than when solved it said something like "heat this", and when you did it, the black squares disappeared revealing the code. The squares were made with that ink.
- semi-extrinsic 5y agoA friend of mine had an incident with these pens in high school. Used one on his physics midterm exam, teacher put a laptop blowing hot air onto the pile of papers before grading, so 3/4 of every page were just gone. He had to retake it.
- dqv 5y agoThat’s too bad. He could have just put it in the freezer to get the ink back. Uh, but let’s keep that between us.
- CamperBob2 5y agoSpoiler: that was the physics test. He failed.
- TheKnack 5y agoIf you put the paper in the freezer, the ink will reappear. The ink doesn't really go anywhere, even when you use the "eraser". It just becomes transparent. This can be reversed by exposing it to cold. Pilot mentions this on their tips and tricks page: https://www.pilot-frixion.uk/uk/tips-and-tricks/ https://www.pilot-frixion.uk/uk/tips-and-tricks/
- analog31 5y agoWow, that's just like the secret spy pen from the Johnson Smith catalog. Brings back memories.
- Fiahil 5y agoMy wife use them for sewing, they disappear pretty well after a rapid ironing ! Much better than chalk or other erasable ink.
- ghostly_s 5y agoDoes anyone know what chemicals are involved? I've been looking for a dye that can go on clear then be "activated" later for a project.
- dcchambers 5y agoI don't use FriXion pens but I did discover JetPens a couple of years ago and have absolutely fallen in love with high end Japanese-market gel pens. Pilot and Uni make so many amazing pens that don't get sold in the US - especially if you like ultrafine tips.
- egypturnash 5y agobecause of its heat-reacting properties, the ink may disappear if left out in a hot car or by a heater (the official temperature at which it “erases” is 60°C/140°F) Oh man. "I used these pens a lot and now several years of notebooks are empty because there was a heat wave" is a tragedy waiting to happen.
- gffrd 5y agoI had a friend who lost some notes to this: left a notepad in the car during summer, found later that some of the writing had "disappeared." Paper is pretty insulating (thinking about paper within a notebook here), so I suspect most people will be safe, assuming they don't leave loose sheets of paper in direct summer sunlight on their car's seat for long periods of time… Though, when I learned about their incident, I immediately stopped using a FriXion for any writing I might want to come back to in 2+ weeks' time.
- aftbit 5y agoDoes the ink reappear if left in the freezer?
- jldugger 5y agoYes. Or tip a can of compressed air upside down and the cold air that comes out can unerase
- jldugger 5y agoWell, I use them with a rocketbook. The intended use case is to record the note digitally when the notebook is full, and then intentionally heat wipe and reuse. Realistically, most of my notes are low value after weeks let alone years, but peace of mind is cheap!
- andjd 5y agoI've always wondered if anyone would combine similar technology with inkjet printers, allowing you to print something out, and then reuse the paper when you were done with it and wanted to print something new.
- bitwize 5y ago> Conversely, the ink can reappear when temperatures reach below -10°C/14°F. Neat. Disappearing, reappearing ink -- like the McGuffin in Who Framed Roger Rabbit.
- srvmshr 5y agoI use them regularly being in Japan. I must be having a stack of at least fifty pens + refills. They are fairly cheap (~$2) and available everywhere. I made a lot of engineering notes with these pens. One observation not mentioned in these discussions is that the ink tends to fade quite a bit over time. Its not just the heat. My rooms are temperature-controlled. But notes from a year ago for e.g are lighter & several alphabets show part erasure. Give or take a few years, they fade away almost completely. Personal observation but restricted to using the fine tips (0.38 & 0.4). Not sure if same problem happens in 0.5 & 0.7 too. Japan government entities do not recommend using this pen when filling out any form or making any signature. The person in counter quickly tests the ink every time a form gets submitted.
- slategruen 5y agoA handful of my professors don't allow us to use this kind of pens, especially for major examinations. The issue was the ink disappears when exposed to heat. Yes, you could place the paper in a fridge when that happens but what kind of professor will have time to do that? Other times, some erasures unintentionally appears just by placing the paper near an A/C. I never use these pens anymore because of it's weird use case: writings which doesn't need to be kept long-term and at the same time you're sure will be handled properly (temperature-wise).
- thesh4d0w 5y agoIf you put the "erased" paper in the freezer, all the ink will show up again.
- agambrahma 5y agoJetpens is where I first bought a Lamy Safari 10 years ago, and it still works perfectly. Highly recommend Jetpens for pens, ink, paper and more (and the Lamy is a great first fountain pen).
- qwerty456127 5y agoWhat I want badly is a FriXion fountain pen. I would pay a really lot for such.