Self Healing Cutting Mat

[CraigH]

I am a 74 year old learning self taught leather work seeking advise what self healing mat to purchase to be used with hard blade cutting . I am searching for one with the lines that is used to help cut straight cuts when aliening the leather parts. Your advice will help saving wasted dollars.

Thank You...CraigH

[Tugadude]

The ones I have experience with are Fiskars and Olfa brands.  They both work very well.  Keep in mind that you can purchase them in a number of sizes, so decide how big you'd like to go.  Some here have huge mats, covering a large working surface.  I think the biggest I've used is 24" x 36" or thereabouts.  Size preference might hinge on what sort of projects you do.  If you focus on small stuff, then a smaller mat might be sufficient for your purposes.

[paloma]

 

[Sheilajeanne]

A silicone cutting board - is that different from a self-healing cutting mat? I'm thinking that's a standard cutting board, like you use for cutting veggies, right?

Which mat is kinder to cutting blades and hole punches?

[toxo]

36 minutes ago, Sheilajeanne said:

A silicone cutting board - is that different from a self-healing cutting mat? I'm thinking that's a standard cutting board, like you use for cutting veggies, right?

Which mat is kinder to cutting blades and hole punches?

I've trird looking for the one I bought. It was a hard HDPE board. It's hard and rigid. Was suggested by Fred and works a treat. I walk around my small clicker dies and there's no danger of going through it. The surface is soft enough to not damage knives/punches etc, The silicone ones are soft and fine for cutting and punching where you're not going too heavy but edges will cut into it necessitating renewal after a while. Look for a HDPE chopping board around 12mm thick.

[fredk]

3 hours ago, CraigH said:

I am a 74 year old learning self taught leather work seeking advise what self healing mat to purchase to be used with hard blade cutting . I am searching for one with the lines that is used to help cut straight cuts when aliening the leather parts. Your advice will help saving wasted dollars.

I've not come across a self-healing cutting mat without the grid lines

But do shop around. You'll pay for the 'name' on the mat, eg I can buy an Olfa 'named' mat for about £25 or a 'no name' one from my resins suppliers for £7. Yes, they do have slightly different construction but in the end they work just the same

As said above, buy to suit what you make, not too big nor too small. I have ones 3 inches square for trimming corners on and up to A0 size, approx 33 x 47 inches, but my most used size is 45 x 60cm approx 17 x 24 inches. If you are making just small things you can get an A4 size, approx 8 x 11 inches for as little as a couple of $$

[AzShooter]

I got my self healing cutting mat from Amazon.  It's 24 X 36.  They also have 12 inch mats on up.

 

[Northmount]

4 hours ago, CraigH said:

I am a 74 year old learning self taught leather work seeking advise what self healing mat to purchase to be used with hard blade cutting . I am searching for one with the lines that is used to help cut straight cuts when aliening the leather parts. Your advice will help saving wasted dollars.

Thank You...CraigH

Check out Amazon.com, lots to choose from, you can see different layouts and sizes.

https://www.amazon.com/s?k=self+healing+mat&ref=nb_sb_noss_1

 

[Sheilajeanne]

2 hours ago, toxo said:

I've trird looking for the one I bought. It was a hard HDPE board. It's hard and rigid. Was suggested by Fred and works a treat. I walk around my small clicker dies and there's no danger of going through it. The surface is soft enough to not damage knives/punches etc, The silicone ones are soft and fine for cutting and punching where you're not going too heavy but edges will cut into it necessitating renewal after a while. Look for a HDPE chopping board around 12mm thick.

Thanks, Toxo. I actually have a cutting board I use, but I'm not exactly sure what it's made of, as I either retired it from my kitchen, or found it when I moved into a new house. I forget which! It's your standard white kitchen cutting board. I assume it's likely HDPE. 

[toxo]

54 minutes ago, Sheilajeanne said:

Thanks, Toxo. I actually have a cutting board I use, but I'm not exactly sure what it's made of, as I either retired it from my kitchen, or found it when I moved into a new house. I forget which! It's your standard white kitchen cutting board. I assume it's likely HDPE. 

I use one of those kitchen types for hole punching for stitching but like I said, after a while you're looking for fresh spots. I did buy a couple of harder ones but they were really hard like plastic. The one I got for the arbor press has a similar feel on top to the kitchen type but is denser and rigid. I think HDPE is high density polyethylene but must come in different formulae because milk crtons are made of HDPE as is a lot of other stuff.

[mike02130]

https://www.dickblick.com/products/alvin-cutting-mats/

Better than others.

[Arturomex]

I don't really like the self healing mats unless I'm using a rotary cutter. Then they're great.  Otherwise I find my knife blades tend to hang up in them.

Regards,

Arturo