Pilot’s line of erasable “Frixion” pens has expanded since its initial release in 2006, to the point where it can almost be considered a flagship product line. It hasn’t always been smooth-sailing, however. I recall trying the Frixion early on and disliking the writing experience immensely. The ink skipped and the colors looked washed out. While the erasability factor was convenient for the many different reasons discussed below, the writing experience itself left much to be desired. Fortunately, Pilot has improved the Frixion in recent years, reworking both the ink formulation and the tips of the pens themselves. I find the current version of the Frixion to be quite good, and in most cases almost as good in terms of smoothness and saturation as a standard gel pen.
My Frixion Ball 3 Multipen is regularly used as a planner pen, shown here with my Roterfaden A5.
Why Might You Need An Erasable Pen?
Based on my own experiences as a user and conversations with customers and other community members who use Frixions, there are a handful of core use cases for erasable pens:
Planners and Calendars. The most common benefit of the Frixion that I hear about is the ability to change dates, appointments, and tasks in a planner and/or calendar. In fact, I understand that one of the big contributors to the Hobonichi paper controversy from a couple years ago is that their “new” Tomoe River replacement paper was not extensively tested for fountain pens due to Japanese users overwhelmingly favoring the Pilot Frixion and other gel pens for use in planners.
Math-Intensive Applications and Professions. Engineers, accountants, and students regularly come into our store inquiring about the Frixion due to the advantages of erasability when revising calculations and proofs. I use my own Frixion multi pen for a lot of my business accounting work.
Left-handed Writers Who Have a Hard Time Using Pencils. I know many lefties who dislike pencils due to the fact that their hand tends to smear the graphite. The Frixion offers erasability without the same disadvantage.
Before you take the plunge and dive into the Frixion line, however, you should consider how these pens actually work. The Frixion ink isn’t “erased” in the traditional sense - it’s formulated to disappear/become invisible when heat is generated by rubbing the Frixion “eraser” on paper. Many people don’t realize that the ink can reappear when the paper is exposed to temperatures below freezing. For this reason, if you live in a very cold climate, have a use case where your notebooks/journals/planners are otherwise exposed to freezing temperatures, or need absolute archivability, the Frixion may not be the best choice for you.
In addition to improving the ink formulation and writing tips, Pilot has also released Frixion highlighters, fineliners and markers. Of these additional categories, the Frixion highlighters work the best, and actually come in handy if, like me, you tend to be an over-eager annotator and highlighter who wishes they were more selective in their note taking. Frixion highlighters use the same thermal technology as the gel pens - you “erase” the highlighting with the heat-generating eraser on the end of the pen.
The Craft Design Technology Frixion Ball 3 in Dark Green, shown alongside the CDT Highlighters.
Takeaways and Where to Buy
The Pilot Frixion isn’t for everyone, but for those of us with a need for the convenience of erasable ink, it’s now a solid product that I use regularly on a case-specific basis. My personal favorite version of the Frixion gel pens is the Frixion Ball 3 multi pen, which we stock in the Craft Design Technology Dark Green variant. It’s design is similar to other Pilot Multi Pens like the Wood 4+1 and the Dr. Grip line. This pen comes with black, blue, and red Frixion refills in a .5mm tip size.
We also carry certain colors of the Frixion Highlighter (which I use fairly frequently), and the recently released Frixion Waai retractable pens which introduced unique colors, including some pastels. Of the Waai pens, the “Bronze” and “Cherry” inks are the ones I find the most unique, and stand alone as cool gel colors regardless of the Frixion aspect.
You can come see these and more in person at our Nashville shop (including testers)! Our showroom is open 1-6pm Thursday and Friday, and from 10am-6pm on Saturday.
