ALWAYS thumb the blade in, even between cutting strips. If you really can't teach yourself to do this as second nature, get one of the retractable cutters. And change your blade OFTEN - is a sliced finger worth a few dollars worth of blade? And learn basic cutting skills - look on YouTube there must be videos on there, cutter vertical as possible, hand on the ruler, pinky on the mat to stop it slipping, cut til level with your hand, stop and leave cutter in place, walk hand up the ruler, cut again. These are basic skills that we should all master - rotary cutters are dangerous. :shock: :-)