I only have a small Olfa mat. Because I've been cutting a lot of strips and have a rotary cutter that's attached to a ruler (very similar to a paper slicer), I've been using my large Fiskars mat forever.

I sat down with the regular rotary cutter and a few templates and pulled out my older smaller Olfa mat....and night and day difference.

:oops: Looks like a large Olfa mat is on the "to buy" list soon...

I'm curious what the difference is. I've never owned anything except Olfa mats, and I love them. I bought the large one on 50% off, well worth waiting for. It's pretty much my table top, now.

The other mat is much more hard--it feels almost brittle in comparison, even though it's not. The Olfa self-healing is more "squishy", for lack of a better word, as you cut.

Thanks.

My Olfa mats seem to just go on forever. I've never replaced one, and they look pretty much like new. I use the tip picked up here and use one of those net bath scrubbers to give my mat a good going over every so often and that gets the fibres stuck in grooves. With the fibres gone, the mat closes up again.

I imagine a harder mat would dull blades faster. You've confirmed my sticking with Olfa!

Love Olfa mats. But I can't give you a comparison because that's all I've owned.

I have both and can't stand Fiskars - too hard and they always start to be wavy on me. Nope, they aren't in the sun either.

I don't know if I'm the only one but I used my 50 off coupon at Joann to get one of the large rotating mats from Olfa, it is sooo cool, I love it. Great when cutting crazy quilts.