I double-fold my fabric most of the time which means I cut 4 layers at a time and of course, the blade will go dull after a while. I started getting really careful around the ruler. I start about 1/2" up from the end of the ruler, align the blade to the ruler, pull back to cut to the end of the ruler and then roll forward to cut the rest. I found that doing this method kept the blade from getting chipped from the ruler.