Found a Yongsheng 601A in the Drawer — The Only Triumph Nib Fountain Pen Still in Production
When we say “still in production,” in reality, Shanghai Junlai is just reusing old Yongsheng Triumph nibs from stock, fitting them onto the 601A pen bodies. The true Triumph nib craftsmanship was lost long ago with the changes at Yongsheng Pen Factory at the end of the last century. The ones you can buy now still have iridium nibs, relying on the remaining old stock.
The origins of the Triumph nib date back to 1942, when Sheaffer launched the Triumph series. At that time, ballpoint pens were beginning to erode the fountain pen market, and major manufacturers were looking for ways to break through. Sheaffer’s solution was a completely new nib design: instead of the traditional open nib, it bent a whole metal sheet into a conical sleeve, fully enclosing the feed, creating a smooth continuous curve between the nib and the grip. The original intent of this design was, on one hand, to make the nib more robust — Sheaffer advertised that it “could go anywhere,” even writing three clear copies through multiple carbon papers at once, a testament to its hardness. On the other hand, the conical structure greatly increased the contact area between the nib and feed, extending the ink channel to the grip, resulting in more stable and reliable ink flow than traditional designs.
There’s an easily overlooked detail about the Triumph nib: the nib is slightly upturned. This “flat nose” shape isn’t just decoration; it’s the result of repeated refinement by Sheaffer engineers. The upturned cone doesn’t puncture the paper when writing forcefully on carbon paper, and it allows writing fine lines with the reverse side of the nib. Early Triumph nibs had a more pronounced upturn, with shorter and wider nibs. As the craftsmanship matured, this feature gradually became more subdued, but it always retained this unique structural characteristic.
Over its more than fifty-year production cycle, the Triumph nib underwent several evolutions. Initially, it was made by bending and welding 14K gold sheets, with the seams hand-polished by skilled workers. In 1948, seamless tube processing was adopted, greatly increasing production efficiency. In 1952, Sheaffer introduced palladium-silver Triumph nibs for lower-end models. Different materials resulted in different feels — palladium-silver nibs were extremely hard, with almost no flexibility; 14K gold nibs were also relatively hard, but due to their thickness, they offered a unique “hard yet resilient” writing experience. Sheaffer even made music nibs (Music Nibs) with this design for calligraphy, which now fetch hundreds of dollars in the collector’s market.
The Triumph nib was in production from 1942 until it was officially discontinued in 1998. A nearly sixty-year lifecycle is rare in the entire history of fountain pens. But for most domestic enthusiasts, the real way to encounter Triumph nibs isn’t through Sheaffer’s vintage pens, but through the “large wrapped nibs” reproduced by Yongsheng and Xingfu factories. After the founding of New China, Shanghai’s pen industry gradually developed by learning from the Soviet Union and drawing on European and American technology. Yongsheng Pen Factory’s predecessor was the Commercial Fountain Pen Factory founded during the Republic of China period, which went through several reorganizations before becoming the state-owned Xinhua Gold Pen Factory. According to old pen enthusiasts on pen forums, Xingfu Factory was the first to reproduce Sheaffer’s Triumph nib structure. Later, when the two factories merged, the Yongsheng series naturally continued this nib design.
But reproduction doesn’t mean crude. A pen enthusiast once commented on the 1970s Yongsheng 233: “It doesn’t feel like a crude copy; it’s even an improvement. I’ve been using it for nearly 40 years, it still works, with exquisite craftsmanship on the cap and body.” More interestingly, Yongsheng’s large wrapped nibs retained a “relic” — a small hole on the feed and an internal tube. To old pen enthusiasts, this structure seemed like a “nonsensical decoration,” but anyone familiar with Sheaffer’s history can immediately recognize it: it’s the breather tube design for the Snorkel filling system. Introduced by Sheaffer in 1952, the Snorkel filling system used a retractable metal tube to draw ink directly from the bottom of the ink bottle, keeping the nib clean throughout the process, and was called “the most complex filling system in fountain pen history.” Yongsheng even copied this structure, although they didn’t retain all the functions of the Snorkel filling system in actual production. But this detail is enough to show how “complete” the imitation was back then — even the slightly upturned “朝天鼻” (skyward nose) feature from Sheaffer’s advertisements was faithfully reproduced on Yongsheng’s large wrapped nibs.
Back to this 601A. Yongsheng’s large wrapped nib pens have produced many classic models over history, the most common being iridium pens like the 233, 235, 236, 237, and 14K gold pens like the Yongsheng 300 and Xingfu 270. These old pens still circulate in the second-hand market, but their condition varies, and their filling systems are often in disrepair. Junlai’s approach of using old stock nibs with modern piston filling systems is a “compromise” that brings the Triumph nib back to the market. There may be slight differences in ink flow, flexibility, and sound between different batches of nibs. The piston system has a large capacity and is reliable. For first-time use, it’s recommended to draw ink several times to expel all air. The pen body has a strong industrial feel, with just the right weight that doesn’t tire the hand even after long writing sessions. The only downside is its plain appearance, lacking the warm, simple industrial design style of old Yongsheng pens.
Speaking of feel, the writing experience of the Triumph nib is unique in the entire fountain pen lineage. It’s not like a hooded nib that hides most of the nib, only exposing a small tip, nor like an open nib that’s fully exposed. The Triumph nib is somewhere in between — the nib is completely exposed, providing a wide writing view, but the conical structure gives it the robust support similar to a hooded nib. A pen enthusiast described the Triumph nib of the Yongsheng 300 as having “a good writing view, which in turn makes the feel good” and being “slightly flexible.” The original large Sheaffer Triumph nib weighs nearly 1 gram, a testament to its thickness.
I particularly love this feel. It’s not the complete smoothness of a ballpoint pen, nor the delicate rebound of a soft gold nib, but that middle ground of “resistance and feedback.” The pen has a solid feel when touching paper, and a textured feel when moving across the page. When writing long notes or sketching casually, the pen doesn’t “run away” — it’s like an old friend accompanying you, every stroke feeling steady. In the words of an old pen enthusiast on a forum, “this robust writing feel is almost like writing with style.” In today’s trend of writing tools that pursue “silky smoothness,” this slightly damped feedback that requires a bit of pressure has become a luxury — it reminds you that writing itself can be felt.
说是“现产”，其实上海君来只是把老永生的胜利尖库存，重新装到601A的笔杆上。真正的胜利尖工艺，早跟上世纪末永生制笔厂的变迁一起散了。现在能买到的这些，笔尖还是铱金的，靠的是仅剩的老库存撑着。
胜利尖的源头要说到1942年，犀飞利（Sheaffer）出的Triumph系列。那时候圆珠笔开始蚕食钢笔市场，各大厂商都在想办法突围。犀飞利给出的方案是一种全新的笔尖形态：不再是传统的开放尖，而是将整块金属片弯折成圆锥形套筒，把笔舌完全包裹进去，笔尖与笔握之间形成一个流畅的连续曲面。这种设计的初衷，一方面是为了让笔尖更坚固，犀飞利在广告中宣称它“可以带到任何地方”，甚至能垫多层复写纸一次写出三份清晰的拷贝——硬度可见一斑；另一方面，锥形结构让笔尖与笔舌的接触面积大幅增加，墨槽延伸至笔握，供墨比传统设计更加稳定可靠。
胜利尖还有一个容易被忽视的细节：笔尖微微上翘。这个“塌鼻子”造型不是装饰，而是犀飞利工程师反复推敲的结果。上翘的锥形在复写纸上用力书写时不会戳破纸张，同时允许笔尖反面书写细字。早期胜利尖的翘起幅度更大，笔尖也更短更宽，后来随着工艺成熟逐渐收敛，但始终保留了这一独特的结构特征。
在长达五十多年的生产周期里，胜利尖经历了多次演变。最早是14K金片弯曲成形后焊接，接缝处由技工手工打磨抛光。1948年改用无缝管材加工，生产效率大幅提升。1952年犀飞利又推出了钯银材质的胜利尖，用于定位较低端的型号。材质不同，手感也各异——钯银尖极硬，几乎没有弹性；14K金尖同样偏硬，但笔尖厚度摆在那里，写起来有种“硬朗而不失韧性”的独特体验。犀飞利甚至用这种笔尖做过音乐尖（Music Nib），专供书法使用，在收藏市场上动辄拍到数百美元。
胜利尖从1942年一直生产到1998年才正式停产。将近六十年的生命周期，放到整个钢笔史上都是罕见的。但对于大多数国内玩家来说，真正接触胜利尖的途径并不是犀飞利的古董笔，而是永生和幸福厂仿制的“大包尖”。新中国成立后，上海制笔工业通过学习苏联和借鉴欧美技术逐步发展起来，永生笔厂的前身是民国时期创立的商务自来水笔厂，经过多次改组才定型为后来的国营新华金笔厂。据钢笔论坛上的老玩家回忆，幸福厂最早开始仿制犀飞利的胜利尖结构，后来两厂合并，永生系列也就顺理成章地延续了这种笔尖形态。
但仿制不意味着粗糙。有笔友评价70年代的永生233“感觉那可不是一种粗糙的仿制品，甚至是一种超越，用了接近40年了笔还能用，而且笔帽笔身做工精致”。更有意思的是，永生的大包尖还保留了一个“遗迹”——笔舌上那个小小的圆孔和内部的细管。这个结构在老笔友看来是个“莫名其妙的摆设”，但了解犀飞利历史的人一眼就能认出：那是潜艇上墨（Snorkel）的呼吸管设计。1952年犀飞利推出的潜艇上墨，通过一根可以伸缩的金属管直接从墨水瓶底部吸墨，笔尖全程不沾墨水，被称为“钢笔史上最复杂的上墨系统”。永生当年连这个结构也一并仿制了，尽管在实际生产中并没有保留潜艇上墨的全部功能，但这个细节足以说明当年的仿制有多么“完整”——甚至连犀飞利广告里那个笔尖微微上翘的“朝天鼻”特征，在永生的大包尖上也被忠实复刻了。
讲回这支601A。永生的大包尖钢笔在历史上出过不少经典型号，最常见的是233、235、236、237等铱金笔，以及永生300、幸福270等14K金笔。这些老笔在二手市场上依然流通，但品相参差，上墨系统也多半年久失修。君来采用库存的老笔尖搭配现代活塞上墨系统，算是用一种“折中方案”让胜利尖重新回到了市场上。笔尖批次不同，出水、弹性、声音可能有点差别。活塞系统容量大，可靠，第一次用建议多吸几次墨水，把空气排干净。笔杆工业感强，重量刚好，握久了不累，就是外观朴实，少了老永生那种温润朴素的工业设计风格。
说到手感，胜利尖的书写体验在整个钢笔谱系里独树一帜。它不像暗尖那样将笔尖深藏，只露出小小一点，也不像明尖那样舒展外露。胜利尖处于两者之间——笔尖完全暴露在外，书写视野开阔，但圆锥形的结构又赋予了它接近暗尖的硬朗支撑。有笔友形容永生300的胜利尖“写字的视野好，进而手感好”，而且“略有弹性”。而犀飞利原版的大号胜利尖，光笔尖重量就接近1克，厚度可见一斑。
我特别喜欢这手感。不是中性笔那种滑到底，也不是软金尖那种细腻回弹，而是中间那点“阻力和反馈”。落笔有实感，行笔有质感，写长笔记或随手画时，笔不会“跑”，像个老朋友陪着你，一笔一划都踏实。用钢笔论坛一位老玩家的话说，“这种硬朗的写感简直算得上写字带风”。放在今天，在动辄追求“滑顺如丝”的书写工具潮流里，这种略带阻尼、需要一点力度的反馈反而成了一种奢侈——它提醒你，写字这件事本身，是可以被感知的。