[HN Gopher] Pilot FriXion Erasable Pens: A Comprehensive Guide
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Pilot FriXion Erasable Pens: A Comprehensive Guide
Author : mas-ev
Score : 77 points
Date : 2022-03-09 19:01 UTC (3 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (www.jetpens.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (www.jetpens.com)
| ser13 wrote:
| I 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 wrote:
| But 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 wrote:
| > Conversely, the ink can reappear when temperatures reach
| below -10degC/14degF.
|
| If they accidentally left it in a cold car, the mismarking will
| come back. Needs to be fairly cold though. Or a freezer.
| ameminator wrote:
| I 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 wrote:
| I 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.
| PetitPrince wrote:
| I also have a rocketbook but don't use the OCR that much; my
| type of note taking / scribble doesn't need to be archived.
| However it is considerably easier to erase a big surface
| compared to regular notebook; easier even than the other
| (whiteboard-like) erasable notebook based on the Staedtler
| Lumocolor 305 pen (Bambook / Esquoia / Whynote). The writing
| feeling is also better.
| sodality2 wrote:
| I 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 wrote:
| Do 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)
| spacebouy wrote:
| I gave up on my rocketbook for this reason. Cleaning the
| pages with isopropyl alcohol helps, but even it doesn't bring
| the pages back to how well they worked when new.
| Fiahil wrote:
| My wife use them for sewing, they disappear pretty well after a
| rapid ironing ! Much better than chalk or other erasable ink.
| therein wrote:
| I remember tailors in Turkey using a thin bar of soap for that
| back when I was a child.
| ghostly_s wrote:
| Does 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.
| ghawk1ns wrote:
| So 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 wrote:
| I'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)
| egypturnash wrote:
| _because 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 60degC /140degF)_
|
| 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 wrote:
| I 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 wrote:
| Does the ink reappear if left in the freezer?
| moogly wrote:
| I like these for the great writeability and never use the erasing
| feature. I even keep forgetting they can do that.
| dcminter wrote:
| If 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 wrote:
| Just make sure your notebooks don't get too hot.
| dcminter wrote:
| I 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 wrote:
| Great, now I've blown $50 on more pens. Thanks.
|
| (tongue firmly in cheek :), though I did just finish the order.)
| JohnBooty wrote:
| JetPens 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.
| malfist wrote:
| Goulet pens is very similar, though their focus is almost
| entirely fountain pens.
| jerlam wrote:
| They must sell a _lot_ of pens in order to afford a full time
| content /video creator.
| dole wrote:
| Jetpens and the below mentioned Goulet are two of the most
| popular (if not the most) pen nerd sites, not too
| surprising.
| jkubicek wrote:
| They 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)
| dcchambers wrote:
| I 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.
| bleair wrote:
| They 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)
| rhinoceraptor wrote:
| I remember reading a story of a student who wrote an essay with
| one, which was erased because the teacher left their bag with
| the papers in a hot car while grading them.
| neonnoodle wrote:
| Try putting the notebook in the refrigerator or freezer for a
| few minutes.
| aaronius wrote:
| This 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 wrote:
| Unfortunately, this also brings back anything you
| deliberately erased, which might still render some writing
| unreadable!
| huhtenberg wrote:
| That'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 wrote:
| "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 wrote:
| As others have already mentioned, the process is
| interestingly enough reversible (to some degree) by simply
| subjecting it to a colder environment like a freezer for a
| bit.
| fma wrote:
| I was introduced to FriXion pens because I have a Rocketbook. I
| have a pack of colors. One day my daughter came out of my
| office with a nice drawing (she's 5...so it's more sentimental
| than artistic). My wife wanted me to laminate it...well...out
| came a blank piece of paper, except for the parts she used a
| regular pen.
| slowmovintarget wrote:
| What'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 wrote:
| Ever tried Noodler's Bulletproof inks?
|
| https://www.jetpens.com/blog/Noodler-s-Fountain-Pen-Inks-A-C...
| malfist wrote:
| Avoid Baystate Blue!
| KennyBlanken wrote:
| Why?
| tobsterius wrote:
| It 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 wrote:
| It'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.
| cnasc wrote:
| Counterpoint: BSB is my favorite ink
| andjd wrote:
| I'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.
| elamje wrote:
| These 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!
| LeifCarrotson wrote:
| They're nice pens - I personally prefer the G2 gel pens - but I
| can't help but think of this XKCD:
|
| https://xkcd.com/1095/
|
| Human subcultures are nested fractally, there's no bottom.
| drakonka wrote:
| I 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 wrote:
| Aren'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 wrote:
| The issue is mostly that it could erase by accident.
| Sporktacular wrote:
| Prove it :)
| TrianguloY wrote:
| That'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 wrote:
| A 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 wrote:
| That'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.
| TheKnack wrote:
| If 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/
| JohnBooty wrote:
| Pros:
|
| 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?
| sudosysgen wrote:
| Yes, these pens dry up quickly. However, you can "undry" them
| using alcohol based hand sanitizer :)
| simplyaccont wrote:
| i have one in my travel bag for filling immigration forms. i
| have same pen for 10 years or so, it's still writing.
| omaras wrote:
| Jetpens had a video on it, https://youtu.be/jXLN0InPdr0
| jafoi wrote:
| Beware of very fine tips. They sound like a good idea in theory
| but they are almost always scratchy.
| dcminter wrote:
| I'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.
| JohnBooty wrote:
| Wow, I'm genuinely kind of stunned that others aren't
| experiencing this problem. I'm not sure why it's just me.
|
| I owned probably 20-30 Frixons over the years, purchased at
| various times, and nearly all of them had this problem.
|
| The only constant (beside the human being using them) I can
| think of is that probably 75% of my writing was in Moleskine-
| brand journals, and maybe 25% on index cards.
| astoriafloyd wrote:
| You ever try sticking them in the freezer to see if they
| just heated up?
| Sporktacular wrote:
| They're amazing. First time I saw someone use one I couldn't
| believe it.
|
| Mine seemed to run out of ink quicker than normal pens, however
| that might be possible. And they're not exactly cheap either.
| jonjon10002 wrote:
| I've had two (Japanese models) sitting on my desk since maybe
| 2015 without drying out.
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