I bought Kobe #6 Bordeaux and #27 Kounan Maroon, and Bungubox Sweet Potato Purple, Clown Teardrop Ruby and Piano Mahogany, to pit against one another and to see if I could replace Diamine Syrah and Rustic Brown with inks that felt more lubricated in drier pens.
#27 Kounan Maroon and Clown Teardrop Ruby are close—a reddish-purple. #6 Bordeaux is the lightest and has the most pink. Sweet Potato Purple is the purpliest, and Piano Mahogany is the most maroon. In pens with average flow, the colour differences are easily perceivable; in generous flowing pens, it becomes a bit more difficult, but still doable.
Like most Sailor inks I’ve tried, all these inks worked flawlessly in all my Sailor 1911 L and S pens, with all nib sizes from H-EF to H-B, even in my 1911S 21kt H-M, which is a dry writer: if an ink works well in that particular nib, it’s a winner in my book! No feathering, no skipping, no hard starts, no bleed through, some ghosting. The inks all felt substantial under the nib: no watery inks here!
#6 Bordeaux performed OK in my H-M; it has medium saturation, shows some shading and subtle golden-green sheen—more of a haloed outline effect—, has good flow and coats the nib very well. I prefer my inks to be slightly more saturated and less pink, but I like using it in wet flowing pens like my H-MF: I achieve a decently saturated, crisp, contained line.
Bordeaux is bluer than both Syrah and Rustic Brown.
