Banmi - H170

Banmi - H170 - Ink Drop

New to me, Banmi Stationery (spelled both “Banmi” and “Ban Mi” in places) is a popular ink maker in China. They make inks in a wide variety of styles, including standard dye, sheening, shimmering, and UV fluorescent inks, as well.

Swatch and Strokes on Cosmo Air Light

H170 is from a series of somewhat soft, matte inks that are named only by a letter and number code. I’ve seen twelve inks in the series, but there may be more.

Color Range

H170 is an attractive, powdery forest green with very subtle hints of blue in shading. It’s both gentle and full at the same time, and I find the balance very effective visually.

Clean Strokes on Rhodia

On coated papers, there’s often quite nice variation with light stroke ends. On uncoated papers, the changes are more gradual, and stroke ends don’t lighten to the same extent. I wouldn’t call this a strong shading ink, but the variation is nice.

Writing Samples

Writing performance is good. There’s a bit of spread on uncoated papers, but not enough to worry. Strokes are sharp and clean on coated papers.

Ink Swatch Card

This is a slightly dry ink, but I find it comfortable and smooth. Show-through is moderate on copy paper, but not as strong as I expected. Drying was very fast on all papers, and it’s fairly water resistant, too.

Ink Swatch Comparisons

Banmi inks are priced very nicely, and you can find them in two sizes (15 ml and 30 ml). I’ve also seen them packaged with glass-nib pens in even larger bottles. I’m pleased with this ink, and recommend trying the brand. I’m definitely glad that I did!

Banmi H170 in the 15 ml Bottle