Originally Posted by Sewnoma

I haven't seen anybody mention Alvin mats yet. They are less expensive than Olfa and as far as I can tell are just as good quality and come in nice large sizes for reasonable prices. I have a very large one that covers most of my cutting table and I LOVE IT! I bought it on Amazon. I own mats made by Alvin, Olfa, Fiskars & Dritz - Alvin is my favorite.

Hydrating your self-healing mat periodically is important, regardless of brand!! If yours is small enough, take it into the shower with you every now and then, and lay it somewhere flat to slowly dry (don't put it in the sun unless you're trying to fix a warp). If your mat is too large for that (like mine), what I do is every now and then I give it a good scrubbing (I just use water & a brush - this is just to remove lint and any caught fibers) and then I lay warm wet towels over it for a few hours.

If you don't do this every now and then, your mat becomes brittle and won't "heal" anymore. My oldest mat (Olfa) got so brittle that the corner of it shattered when I tried to pick it up awkwardly. Now I know better!

This reminds me, I need to soak my travel mat...