Twelve years ago Solid Stamps started in business based on a very simple concept:
Sell rubber stamp products directly to the end user. No middleman.
This simple and easy to understand concept has proven very successful and to day Solid Stamps has more than 4500 rubber stamp end user customers in the UK. We sell all types of rubber stamp products and it might come as a surprise for many that “the old fashion rubber stamp with a separate ink pad “is still a major part of the rubber stamp market. There are no official statistics on how many rubber stamp products there are sold yearly in the UK but it is assumed to be around 3.5 million. It is probably also a surprise that between 60% and 70% of the rubber stamp product market is still the old traditional rubber stamp we all know with the separate ink pad.
The name Goodyear we connect with automobile tires – but without him the rubber stamp would never have been invented. Goodyear invented the vulcanising process. In 1839 Goodyear by accident dropped some rubber mixed with sulphur on top of a hot stove – and that was the start of the vulcanizing process and with that the possibility to make rubber stamps. The first rubber stamps as we know them to day were produced in the 1860´s in the US and since then rubber stamps have been standard inventory in all offices around the world.
Just 10-15 years ago the rubber stamp text was typeset using lead. Hard to understand today where type setting of the rubber stamp text is done using modern computer technology. There was a rubber stamp manufacture in almost every city and it was often a man/wife business. There were hundreds of rubber stamps manufactures around the UK. To day most of these small man/wife businesses have disappeared and been replaced by fewer larger and more industrialized rubber stamp companies. Even the production process to day is based on modern technology it requires skill and know-how to produce a high quality rubber stamp. Solid Stamps has 12 years experience of producing high quality rubber stamps and we are proud to say we have rubber stamp customers all over the UK very satisfied with our service and outstanding quality.
We only use rubber to produce the rubber stamp text place – and we do this for quality reasons. Most rubber stamp manufacturers use polymer – a plastic substance – because it is cheaper, easier and does not require the same skill and know-how as using rubber does. When using rubber the ink stays on the letters only which gives a sharp impression. When using polymer this is not the case and the rubber stamp impression becomes blurred and often letters like a, o, c, q, g and these types of letters are not sharp because the whole letter is filled with ink.
It is important to be able to read the rubber stamp text when it has been stamped on often very expensive documents. Businesses use fortunes on documents, promotion brochures and so on – and then they buy bad quality rubber stamps. We believe they do so because the do not know better. We always advice our customers to go for quality also when they buy rubber stamps. The top quality rubber stamp impression is produced when the text plate is made if rubber.
But remember…. if the separate ink pad has dried out then even the best quality rubber stamp can not produce a good impression
To day we recommend our customers to use self inking rubber stamps to ensure constant perfect impressions, to avoid the ink pad to dry out because the cover stays open and to avoid dirty ink fingers and the mess on the office desk the separate ink pad may cause.