if your mat is a self healing one you can soak them in the bath tub and use something soft like a mushroom brush. Self healing boards love water. I have a shower, no room to soak in tub. I instead put a towel underneath my mat and using the brush and squirt of detergent put it all over my mat. Let it sit for about 20 min, then did the same thing with clean water. Left it laid out to dry, then used cutting mat sander and believe you me, Mat is beautiful, just like new and rotary cutter is working great!!

I think that sometimes we just get a bad batch of blades. I thought the same thing when I was having trouble. I would not even be able to cut fabric for 1/2 of my project before I started having trouble. I continuously had to switch blades. The one I have been using now has lasted forever.

I appreciate all of these answers. Never heard of a mushroom brush (?). My new Fiskar was skipping 3-4 times each pass through the fabric the very first time I used it. I am not slanting the blade. I have tried new blades and am careful to put everything back together properly. It a darn mystery. I looked at the June Tailor mat closely and there are cut marks in the pad. I have hardly used it. JT mats are plastic and not self healing. It is the blue one. Maybe I just need to invest in a new bigger self healing Olfa mat and ditch the JT one. I have decided that it must be the JT mat that is dulling my blades with those scratches in the hard plastic. I think they affect the blade the same as if I had tried to cut over a pin (which I have never done.)

mushroom brushes are used to clean mushrooms. Similar to those brushes for dishes (round and you can put soap into the top of them). I have one of those which I use