The Lacking and Lackluster Erasable Pen

by Kimberly | 4 comments

***Update***

Since publishing this blog post, a new erasable pen has emerged that knocked our socks off! Check out the Frixion Point erasable gel pen, it comes in great colors, feels great to write with, and actually erases!

The Lacking and Lackluster Erasable Pen

For some, the erasable pen is the holy grail of writing implements. The smooth, striking ink marks of a pen, combined with the impermanence of a pencil. Alas, every erasable pen we have tried has failed on both counts, and therefore we won't sell them. Rest assured, the moment an actual, factual, worth-your-time erasable pen appears on the market, we will bring it to you. In the mean time, here is what you have to contend with if you use them:

Ink Troubles

In an effort to make inks more erasable, manufacturers seem to use watery inks that are not as smooth and bold as normal gel or oil-based inks. These erasable inks are more likely to skip when you write with them, or produce lines of inconsistent width.

Erasable?

When it comes to erasing lines, we have an even sadder story. The erasable pen's eraser (which is no different from any other eraser as far as I can tell) fails to erase the entire pen mark. Ghosts of your characters or lines are still visible even after the most vigorous erasure. Combine these faded specters of your previous writing with the inability of the spineless ink to cover them up, and erasable pen writers can easily end up with a mess on their paper.

The Quest Continues

I still hold out hope for the future of erasable pens. I firmly believe that at this very instant, there exists in Japan a laboratory where geniuses in white lab coats are pouring boiling beakers of brightly colored inks into racks of test tubes headed for centrifuges, ultraviolet radiation, or the anti-gravity chamber. If anyone will find this grail it is the Japanese pen manufacturers, and until they do, their quest (and mine) continues.
Have you had other problems with erasable pens? I want to hear about it!

4 comments

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