Are you a stamp manufacturer or craft retailer?
Both! We sell a variety of manufacturer's products to enhance your shopping experience and we also manufacture our own high quality rubber stamps.
What types of payments do you accept?
When you place an order online you are given two choices of payment at checkout:
- Credit/Debit Card - Visa, Mastercard, Discover
- Paypal - Choosing the Paypal option allows you to pay direct from your Paypal balance or any credit/debit card of your choice.
If you wish to send a check/money order for your order please do not call us with your order. By the time we receive your check the chances are that we will have forgotten what you wanted. Therefore when you send a check please write the item number & the name of all the items you are wanting on a piece of paper & enclose it with your payment. Please note that we only accept checks from USA accounts. If you are an international customer sending a money order it MUST be in US Dollars & include an extra $4 to cover the bank charges we get charged for cashing it. We reserve the right to wait 10 days for your check to cash before shipping your order. Please send to: Cornish Heritage Farms, Box 68, Chinook, MT 59523.
Where did the name Cornish Heritage Farms come from?
Both Richard and Liz were born and raised in Cornwall, England. That makes us Cornish and therefore Cornish is our Heritage. We live on a Farm (technically called a ranch in Montana, but never mind), hence Cornish Heritage Farms.
The name has nothing to do with chickens even though we have several running around here laying eggs for us!
Do you copy other people's images even if they have been discontinued by another company?
No, Never! If our stamp images look like someone else's it purely coincidental. We always use original artwork.
Will you make the stamp that I want?
It depends. We are always open to suggestions from our customers for new images they would like to see us carry. However, creating a high quality rubber stamp is an expensive project. We have to recoup our costs and so have to have a reasonable idea of how well an image will sell. If we think your idea is a good one we will take it and run with it.
What is the rubber stamp making process?
There are a number of ways of manufacturing rubber stamps. The most tried and tested way of producing high quality rubber stamps is the metal plate and matrix board method. Other methods generally produce shallower or less resilient rubber stamps.
First, the original artwork is converted into digital form placed multiple times onto a 'digital plate'. The digital plate is then passed onto a professional engraver to be converted into a metal, magnesium plate. This metal plate looks the same as the original artwork, except that the lines on the art work are now represented by raised areas on the metal plate.
The metal plate is then taken and pressed into matrix board using high temperatures and pressure. The image is now 'inversed' so that the high areas on the metal plate are low areas in the board, and vice versa. Matrix is a fiber based board with a thermo plastic coated surface. The matrix board we use is a lot thicker than normal matrix so as to retain the deep etch of our metal plates.
The matrix board is then used again and again in the manufacturing of the rubber dies that end up as the final product. Raw rubber sheets are placed over the matrix board and then squeezed and heated so that the rubber takes on the shape of the matrix. The resulting rubber now is a copy of the metal plate.
The rubber die is then taken and backed with foam, cut out and mounted to the wooden blocks.
What is your company philosophy?
Total honesty in everything thing we do, high quality products and friendly, personal service. We believe that's the way to ensure that you, our customer, keeps coming back for more plus it's what we believe is the right way to run a business.
Is CHF environmentally friendly?
There are two parts that lead to an answer to that question - company and personal. Let's start with the company side.
As a company, we at Cornish Heritage Farms (CHF), do our best to recycle all packing materials that come through the door. We NEVER purchase packing peanuts OR packing paper. The majority of the packaging used in your box of goodies is an accumulation of all the parcels that have arrived here. Hence the fact that your package may well contain several different colors and shapes of peanuts and paper. A majority of store orders are packaged in envelopes or boxes provided to us by the Post Office and those are made using recycled materials. Our wholesale orders are mostly shipped via UPS and those are put in boxes that we have recycled.
Admittedly we do go through a lot of printing paper here as we need to print invoices and other business documents. Most printers that produce an acceptable quality don't accept paper with recycled content (otherwise parts have to be replaced more often and enter land fills more than necessary), but all waste paper that doesn't contain personal information (and therefore shredded), does get reused for scrap. We even re-use the waxy paper that is on the back of the shipping labels.
When you purchase rubber stamps from us you usually get a choice of mounted or unmounted so you can save on money, space and wood if you choose to. Why do we use hard white maple for our wood mounted stamps? Quite simply, it's THE BEST and comes from a renewable source in the USA! All of our stamps are made here on the farm ensuring the quality that we produce is consistent and also supporting the local community. That is something Richard and Liz strongly believe in. We do a lot of our personal shopping right here in Chinook and you will see us in the local restaurants from time to time. We want to see our little town continue to be a thriving community and, as the business grows, we will employ local residents to help us in our manufacturing.
On a personal family level, as you already know from reading about us, we live on a 110 acre farm. All of our animals are pasture raised and enjoy the beautiful Montana sky and sun 365 days a year. The livestock, as well as eating grass and hay, are fed on locally grown grain, usually barley which is non-GMO or scratch grains which is a variety of grains left over from the screening process at the local seed plant. We do grow and raise a percentage of our own food here (not as much as would like, but we're working on that!) including making all our own dairy products - butter, cheese and yogurt from Bossy's milk. We raise our food as naturally as possible and do not use any pesticides. We don't even have to buy in fertilizer as we have plenty provided for us!
No food ever goes in the trash as we feed the scraps to the chickens and/or pigs. Our land is a mixture of good pasture and wildlife habitation. One section is our "wildlife sanctuary", where you can find beavers, mink, skunk, porcupine, foxes, coyotes, ducks, geese, pelicans, deer (white tale & mule) and even a pair of sand hill cranes in the spring time. It is beautiful. We love it.
For our human babies we use cloth diapers and so save on adding more trash to the landfills. For those of you that are not too squeamish, we use a septic system to deal with all personal waste.
There are always ways to improve how we impact the environment around us. It is our commitment to our customers that we will continue to be responsible stewards of our resources wherever possible.
We know you have choices in the marketplace and we thank you for your support of our business.
Do you sell unmounted stamps?
Yes, the majority of the stamps we manufacture are available unmounted. When we say unmounted, we mean that they come backed on Smart Cushion (Cling) for use with acrylic blocks. We do NOT sell just the red rubber nor do we sell the unmounted stamps on regular, double sided sticky cushion for putting on wood blocks.
What on earth is Smart Cushion?
Smart cushion is simply a trade name for the type of cushion that will temporarily cling to acrylic blocks and other smooth surfaces. It is the equivalent of the well known 'cling' mount out there on the open market.
Why do all your unmounted stamps come with foam attached?
The foam backing on the rubber ensures an even pressing when the image is applied to your paper.
There are a couple of reasons that we sell our unmounted stamps with the backing already in place. One is that we get to keep control of the quality of our product in the market place. We know that an unmounted stamp from us will look good and function well from the start of it's life to the finish.
The other reason is that you have a professionally cut, ready backed stamp that can be used immediately. No jagged edges smudging your paper, etc.
I don't like to buy things online. Can I purchase your stamps elsewhere?
If you don't like purchasing online, you are welcome to call us toll free on (877) 860 5328 to place your order. If you would prefer to send us a check or money order with your order that is fine also. An order form for SonLight and Cat Dancing Design stamps is available on the store for you to print off (see the 'Information' box on the bottom left of the home page). You can also find our lines of stamps in various online and regular retail stores. If your local craft store doesn't stock our stamps, simply give them our email address or phone number and ask them to get some in for you!
Who cares whether it's deep etched or not?
The phrase 'Deep etched' refers to the depth of the image created in the magnesium plate used during manufacture. The deeper the cut the more height there will be on the final product. The height of the rubber determines what it can be used for. As explained in an answer further up on this page, the matrix board also plays a very important role in the final depth of the rubber. If shallow matrix is used the full depth of the magnesium plate will not be realized. It is only when you use a deep etch magnesium plate & thick matrix board together can you create deep etched rubber. Our stamps are great for use on any form of paper or card and will not give you any 'ghosting' from the background rubber. Because of the deep etching they are also suitable for use with polymer clay, fabric etc.
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