had to retire my old Frisk cutting mat

[Michael Sheldon]

I finally had to retire my old Frisk cutting mat. Unfortunately, nothing made today is even close to that old mat. The newer mats are thinner, less durable, and slippery as all get out. Plus, my old mat had a printed 1/16" grid. The best you can get these days is a 1" grid with finer measurements at the edges. The finer grid really helped with aligning small components.

But the slipperiness really drives me nuts. It's slippery front and back, which means the piece slides on the mat, and the mat slides on the bench. The second part I finally took care of today. I drilled 9/64" holes through the mat into the bench at all four corners, and dropped a tubular rivet into each hole, pinning it to the bench. I can pull the rivets out to clean the mat or the bench, but with the rivets in, the mat stays put.

[Hoyden]

Don't know what a frisk mat is but I use a mat I got at Joann Fabrics for cutting fabric for my leather.

GO TO THE QUILTING ISLE! They have better mats and some have smaller increment measures on them.

This is one that I like for small projects

http://www.joann.com/joann/catalog.jsp?CAT...;PRODID=prd2774

[esantoro]

I just ordered a Sanatec cutting board .5" thick 2' by 4' from U.S. Plastics: $54 plus $10 shipping was the best price I had found. All the other places wanted to charge $30 and higher for shipping.

[Hoyden]

http://www.cutting-mat.com/proddetail.asp?prod=151

This page has custom grids, maybe you can get the smaller increments.

I'm going to ask on my embroidery forum to see if the ladies have any leads on mats with smaller grid measurements. I've seen them and the lines are different colors Red for inches blue for quarters and green for halfs

[Michael Sheldon]

The Olfa mat is what I'm using currently. The mats made for rotary cutters are all high silicone, and IMO, pretty lightweight.

Frisk is a brand name, they used to be THE word in cutting mats for artists.

I've got a heavy mat I use on my cutting table that is not so darned slippery, and is much thicker. It's 3'x5', and covers the full table-top. That one is great for the larger cutting tasks. It's the smaller mats that I use on my bench top for detail work I'm not happy with.

[esantoro]

I just got my HDPE cutting board from US Plastics today. I think I may have ordered the wrong material. What I got I can use, but I was expecting a cutting board that is very difficult to cut into, eepecially when you're putting pressure on a knife to cut through thick veg tan. I have one such board that is great at resisting cuts. It's a 10" by 13" I got from Kmart.

A catalog came with my board, and I noticed that there is also a polypropylene board, and less expensive too: rigid with FAIR impact resistance and very good abrasion resistance, density .90, working temp +32 degrees to 210, forming temp 310 degrees to 325, meets FDA and USDA standards.

Teh HDPE board I received has these specs: density .95, Rigid, GOOD impact resistance and abrasion resistance, working temp -60 degrees 10 180, forming temp 295 degrees, meets FDA standards.

I already have a a 3/8" LDPE board that I've cut through quite quickly, which prompted me to go for the HDPE board. Now I'm thinking I should have gone with the Polypropylene board, which I may do anyway, because I really do need two long boards that cannot be cut through quickly.

Ed

[TOM123]

I am trying a horse stall mat that I got at TSC, it is a rubber mat about 3/4" thick 4'x6', i cut it down to 2'x6' and sets on the bench(and stays put) and the knife will not track in an old cut.

I have only used it for a short time so I don't know how it will stand up to use but so far it works really good.

but it has no grid measurements