Anyone Tried Heat Eraseable Fountain Pen Ink

[OCArt]

I see that Aliexpress is now listing some fountain pens with thermal erasable fountain pen ink. The pens appear to have a nylon pad open the end of the barrel that I assume is used to rub the writing and erase in the manner of Frisson pens.  Here is one example.  Anyone tried them????

[welch]

First I've seen about this, but fascinating stuff. My 60-years-ago self would have love this pen and ink, if it works the way you guess. We all used Ink Eradicator back then. 

[amberleadavis]

Of course, now I wonder how regular erasable ink would do??????

[welch]

 What was erasable ink? In the 1960s, we all used ink eradicator (made by Carter's??). A regular pencil eraser could not touch permanent or washable inks, and a typewriter eraser would nearly rip a hole in a page. A few years later -- about 1970 -- there was a ballpoint that could be erased with a pencil eraser. I never knew anyone to use it because then the ink would smear. 

 

[Pen Ultimate User]

I wonder if this is basically Frixon ink. Frixon ink is erased by heat and returns when it gets cold. If the pen has a vinyl "eraser" like the Frixon pens then I am guessing it's the same ink - or works the same way, erase with heat, return if the paper drops below a certain temp. I can't remember what temp it takes to unerase Frixon, but I know it's above freezing.

 

Cross stitchers like the Frixon ink for drawing guide lines on their Aida cloth. After the project is done, blast it with a blow dryer to erase the lines. Someone where I learned this told us that it reappears on freezing because it happened to a project of theirs.

[ErrantSmudge]

There was a table at last year's SF Pen Show that was demonstrating this ink.  I think I remember asking if it was the same basic chemistry as Pilot Frixion ink and they told me yes.   The ink worked pretty well, but I didn't take the opportunity to buy any.

 

A few weeks ago I bought a Frixion highlighter pen at the Japanese stationery shop here in San Francisco.  Mine has pastel blue ink that looks just like any other highlighter pen.  The ink in this pen is likely very similar to whatever is in those AliExpress FP cartridges.

 

I also remember the erasable pens of the 70s and early 80s.  I think they were marketed by Paper Mate under the brand name "Erasermate".  Not only did these "erasable" pens smear, but they wrote blotchy and the eraser nubs were a bit abrasive so they would wear through the paper if you were not careful.

[Lithium466]

I believe the Erasermate worked using a different technology (not heat sensitive ink), and smeared because the ink was supposed to "sit" on paper like the graphite of a pencil for approx 24 before becoming more permanent.

Interesting technology, but I much prefer the Frixion pens (the Frixion colour pencils are pretty bad though)!

[ErrantSmudge]

Here is another vendor for erasable FP inks, with the same sort of technology as used in Frixion pens.  They note the ink is pigment-based and requires a FP with wet flow, and it may not work well in some pens with fine nibs.  They also sell some matching erasers that seem to be very similar to the eraser found on a Frixion pen.

 

https://www.kiwiinks.com/collections/erasable

 

This may be the same company I saw demoing at the 2021 SF Pen Show.

[Paul-in-SF]

Those erasers are interesting. They call them "hard rubber" rather than vinyl as someone above mentioned for Frixion erasers. I was thinking that an eraser that large would last forever if it was the same material as my Frixion erasers, which never seem to lose any volume. But if they are hard rubber, I wonder how much they wear?

 

In any case, I don't think I am the market for these inks. I prefer to preserve my mistakes behind a line of crossing out. 

[essayfaire]

On 5/14/2022 at 2:36 PM, ErrantSmudge said:

I also remember the erasable pens of the 70s and early 80s.  I think they were marketed by Paper Mate under the brand name "Erasermate".  Not only did these "erasable" pens smear, but they wrote blotchy and the eraser nubs were a bit abrasive so they would wear through the paper if you were not careful.

I remember trying one of these as a novelty and hating it.  I ended up being one of those people (pre-fountain pen) who used black felt tips that most certainly could not be erased, or pencil that was supposed to be!

 

@ErrantSmudge, as I read this thread I thought heat- do they mean friction?  Looking at the hard rubber description it says this:

This eraser pen uses friction to create enough heat

 

which makes me wonder how much physical effort needs to be put into the erasing processes.  It would be neat if we could heat the end of a pen on a nearby lightbulb and then melt the ink away without tearing or burning the paper. 💡

[ErrantSmudge]

12 minutes ago, essayfaire said:

 

@ErrantSmudge, as I read this thread I thought heat- do they mean friction?  Looking at the hard rubber description it says this:

This eraser pen uses friction to create enough heat

 

which makes me wonder how much physical effort needs to be put into the erasing processes.  It would be neat if we could heat the end of a pen on a nearby lightbulb and then melt the ink away without tearing or burning the paper. 💡

 

Yes, exactly.  Friction of the eraser against the page creates enough heat to deactivate the pigment. In practice it doesn't take a lot of effort...no more so than a pencil eraser.

 

Pilot Frixion pens are popular with sewists because the sewist can directly mark on the fabric, then erase the marks by pressing with an iron.  Even a shot of steam is more than hot enough.  A lightbulb (old-school incandescent type) definitely makes enough heat to erase the ink.

 

 

[Lithium466]

And then you just have to put the sheet of paper or clothe in a freezer for a few minutes/hours, and surprise, what was erased is legible again!

The perfect spy ink.

[essayfaire]

6 hours ago, Lithium466 said:

And then you just have to put the sheet of paper or clothe in a freezer for a few minutes/hours, and surprise, what was erased is legible again!

The perfect spy ink.

I'm pretty sure I have a bottle of Noodler's Invisible Ink somewhere....

[OCArt]

My erasable pen arrived from China. I ordered a cute character one for my daughter and it came with four cartridges for $4.49.  It's a Safari-like pen with a clear, soft, plastic bump at the end that is the eraser.  The eraser merely provides friction and doesn't affect the surface of the paper. The pen has a EF nib and the ink is a nice royal blue. Not water resistant at all. 

 

[essayfaire]

19 minutes ago, OCArt said:

My erasable pen arrived from China. I ordered a cute character one for my daughter and it came with four cartridges for $4.49.  It's a Safari-like pen with a clear, soft, plastic bump at the end that is the eraser.  The eraser merely provides friction and doesn't affect the surface of the paper. The pen has a EF nib and the ink is a nice royal blue. Not water resistant at all. 

 

Okay, that's beyond adorable. Looks like it would actually make a nice "older sibling" gift to accompany new baby gifts. Please keep us posted on if your daughter seems to enjoy using it!

[wallylynn]

Those are so cute! Now I want a set to make up for the lamys that I've lost.

[OCArt]

As there seems to be interest in these here is the link to them on Aliexpress.  (They are no longer available from that vendor I used.) I also found these, and they are cute too.

 

Wow, eBay now lists erasable ink cartridges by Schneider, and cute fruit pens.

[Licue]

7 minutes ago, OCArt said:

Wow, eBay now lists erasable ink cartridges by Schneider.

I think that's just regular erasable ink tho. = erasable with a "Tintenkiller", but NOT heat-erasable. 

 

[OCArt]

12 hours ago, Licue said:

I think that's just regular erasable ink tho. = erasable with a "Tintenkiller", but NOT heat-erasable. 

 

Good catch, thank you!

[gweimer1]

Anyone tried this?   This is sold as thermochromic ink.

 

Thermochromic Fountain Pen Ink