Originally Posted by
Onebyone
Really the hard surface mats keeps the blades sharper longer. You aren't cutting into the mat. The industry where I use to work cut many gaskets and only hard surface mats were used. The blades for that cutting were too expensive to use the self healing mats. I wish I had saved many of the mat pieces that were cut to size, some discarded pieces were over four feet square. I wasn't quilting then. The mats came on flat bed trucks laying flat. Every guy had his workshop tables at home covered in them. LOL
So true! Those hard mats are great. I found a cute decorative chair mat, and brought it home for under my chair. But it is made of the same hard material - heavy vinyl, or polycarbonite or something. It works great as a cutting mat! It's a weird size: 29x41, and has no grid. Also has no spikes on the bottom... just some sort of non skid surface.
I've had it for years.
Best of all, it doesn't leave slice marks behind or dull my blades.