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After purchasing my 3rd seal press over the last 8 years from Para-Gear, I became determined to find another source for a longer-lasting, better-built rigger seal press.

For me, the seal presses purchased through Para-Gear (made in China) always seemed to fail at the two hinge mechanisms. Over the first six months, it would gradually get harder to compress the seal. Irritating, but it still worked. Finally, by the second year, the press would break and I would try to baby it along with some type of bolt, but it never worked smoothly. I would eventually order a new seal press. Each press lasted approximately 1000 reserve pack jobs.

(Below are three views of the Fallschirmdepot press on left and Para-Gear press on right)




Also, my seal symbol TBJ, rarely was imprinted fully on the seal. Parts or all of the T or J would get cut off unless the press was perfectly centered and the seal compressed as flat as possible. Para-Gear said their supplier was unable to shrink the size of my letters. I'd also seen custom printing on the opposite side of some seal presses and wanted to get the Chutingstar logo imprinted. Para-Gear also was unable to do any custom work expect for the letters or numbers of a seal symbol.


(Fallschirmdepot press with seals on left, Para-Gear press with seal on right.)

An employee of Performance Designs told me about Hans Ostermunchner who owned Fallschirmdepot in Germany. The PD employee had the same problems with Para-Gear presses and then purchased a press from Hans.

While the turnaround time for my new seal press was extremely slow (four months) due to some communication issues, I recently received my German-made press and started using it last month.

The press just looks so much better built. The dies are smaller, which makes it very easy to compress my entire seal symbol. And the custom logo work on the opposite side came out perfectly. The dies do seem slightly small for the seals supplied from Para-Gear, so I have ordered a few bags from Fallschirmdepot to see if their seals are better-suited for its press.


(Compressed seals from Fallschirmdepot press on left, Para-Gear seal on right.)

As to price, a seal press with a rigger's unique seal symbol on one side costs exactly the same from Para-Gear and Fallschirmdepot: $75 (shipping included). My press was $108, but that included the custom work on the opposite side as well.

Only time will tell on the true test of longevity for the seal press from Fallschirmdepot. But so far, I am impressed.

For more information on this seal press, contact Hans at info@fallschirmdepot.de, by phone 08041-70319 or on the web at www.fallschirmdepot.de.