Earlier this year, I sat down in front of my brand-new day planner, excited to fill its crisp pages with my daily to-dos, upcoming appointments, and vacation plans. But when it came time to put pen to paper, I couldn’t bring myself to write. My Laurel Denise Mini Horizontal Weekly Planner, a top pick in Wirecutter’s planner guide, was just too pretty, and I didn’t want to ruin it with scratch-outs, misspelled words, and smudged ink.
Instead of rummaging through my junk drawer to find a stubby pencil to use instead, I turned to Wirecutter’s guide to the best pens to see what our experts had to say about erasable ink. Although the Pilot FriXion Clicker Erasable Retractable Gel Pen is not an official pick, it’s listed as the best option for anyone who’s too nervous to commit to writing in pen. I bought a pack almost immediately.
After years of using the Uni-ball Jetstream RT, Wirecutter’s top-pick pen, I’ve become a bit of a pen snob, so I didn’t expect to like using the FriXion pen. But desperate times called for desperate measures. If writing with an inferior pen meant that I could use my planner without getting a mini anxiety attack every time my plans changed, it would have to do.
But surprisingly, I’ve fallen head over heels in love with the Frixion erasable pen. Not only does it write beautifully, but it has also given me a type of freedom I’ve never known from a pen. It has helped me find more joy in writing, planning, and even making mistakes.
Best for…
If committing to writing in pen makes you nervous, consider this erasable pen. It’s the best one we’ve tested, with quick-drying ink and an easy-to-hold body, and it erases more cleanly than the other erasable pens we tested, too.
The erasable pens I remember using when I was in high school in the late 2000s were laughably bad. They required a lot of pressure to transfer ink to paper, and even then, the ink came out faded and patchy, a pale imitation of the ink that flows from a real pen.
The Pilot FriXion pen is not like that at all. It writes effortlessly, its ink dark and defined. This pen doesn’t glide across the page as silkily as the Uni-ball Jetstream, but when I compared writing samples from the Jetstream against samples from the FriXion pen, I couldn’t tell the difference—that’s how similar the proprietary erasable ink is to permanent ink, which sinks into a page. (I found that this result is specific to the 0.7 mm tip, though; I also tried the 0.5 mm version of the Frixion pen and didn’t like the way the thinner tip made the ink look faint on the page.)
The pen feels great in my hand, and the lightweight body is easy for me to grip during long journaling sessions. Unlike a traditional retractable pen, which typically has a clicker on the top of the writing instrument, the FriXion pen’s clicker is the sliding clip that’s attached to the barrel. The clicker is satisfyingly responsive, though at times I do find myself pressing the eraser out of habit when I want to expose the pen’s tip.
The eraser is on the top of the pen, intuitively placed in the same spot you would find a pencil eraser. It’s made of smooth rubber that glides over the paper, gently providing enough friction to erase the ink (more on that below) without catching or tearing the paper. Although you can occasionally still see the imprint of your writing, the ink erases quite cleanly, and for the most part it disappears without a trace.
To more easily erase large swaths of writing, I bought a separate Pilot FriXion eraser to supplement the pen’s eraser nub. I first tried using a PaperMate Pink Pearl eraser that I already had for big erasing jobs, but it left patches of ink and didn’t work as well as Pilot’s proprietary eraser.
Erasing ink—something that ought to be permanent—feels a bit like performing magic, but it’s actually just science. The FriXion pen’s proprietary thermosensitive ink reacts to extreme changes in temperature and turns invisible when exposed to heat. So when you rub an eraser over the ink, and the friction heats the ink to over 140 degrees Fahrenheit, it becomes invisible on the page and appears “erased.”
If your writing is ever accidentally exposed to high heat—for example, if you set a warm mug down on a page of handwritten erasable ink—you could risk losing your work. Don’t worry, though: The ink reappears in temperatures under 14 degrees, so you can get it back by sticking it in the freezer for a few minutes.
Naturally, I had to try out this magic—I mean science—for myself. After writing a little love note to my husband, I held a lighter up to the back of the page to heat it. The writing disappeared in an instant, and I gasped, delighted by this discovery.
Then, giddy with anticipation to deliver my secret message, I handed the blank page to my husband and instructed him to put it in the freezer. He, too, was delighted when we opened the freezer 10 minutes later to see that my words had reappeared seemingly out of nowhere.
Though I’m not sure how often I’ll use these pens to write secret messages, the fact that I’m able to make words disappear and then reappear tickles me to no end. It’s the closest I’ll get to fulfilling my fantasies of being the secret agent who uncovers a hidden message crucial to the plot in a spy movie.
But the real magic of the Pilot FriXion pen is that it eases the worries of an anxious, indecisive overthinker like me. There’s something liberating about writing with a pen that offers the fluidity of ink without the permanence of mistakes. My planner is no longer a battlefield of scratched-out regrets but a space where plans can shift, change, and evolve—just like life.
Three months later, I still find myself reaching for the FriXion pen over any other. It’s the only pen I want to use when writing in a brand-new notebook. It makes writing messages in greeting cards less daunting. It’s the perfect crossword puzzle partner. And some folks have found that the pen makes a great sewing tool, since you can use it to mark up fabric and then easily wash that away. (However, you should never use an erasable pen to fill out official forms, tests, or checks.)
FriXion erasable pens don’t last as long as standard pens. Pilot says that this is because, in contrast to the permanent ink of ballpoint or rollerball pens, more erasable ink needs to be applied to the writing surface in order to appear. I’ve noticed that after about a month of consistent use, the FriXion pen starts to run dry.
But unlike other ballpoint pens, FriXion pens are refillable. Ink refills are sold separately, and swapping out the ink is fast and easy. I like that I don’t have to chuck the whole pen in the trash when it runs dry. Plus, Pilot offers a range of different FriXion refill colors and tip sizes, and all refills are interchangeable across the lineup, no matter which model you have.
I’ve become so smitten with the idea of erasable ink that I even decided to buy packs of Pilot’s FriXion erasable highlighters and Frixion markers, too.
Whereas old erasable pens were weak, scratchy, and unreliable, the Pilot FriXion pen is bold, smooth, and actually erases cleanly. In proving that you don’t have to sacrifice quality for convenience, it has made me completely rethink erasable pens.
So many things in life are permanent, but with the FriXion erasable pen, at least your ink doesn’t have to be. It’s a small but satisfying reminder that not everything needs to be set in stone—sometimes, all you need is a little flexibility, the chance for a fresh start, and the right pen to make it happen.
This article was edited by Hannah Rimm and Megan Beauchamp.
