"Dealing" with "Self-Healing"

"Self-Healing," related to cutting mats, is a term we really don't like. Here are some insights on the subject we'd like to share to help anyone thinking about their mat needs, mat condition, etc. Above all, we encourage you to research it on your own and come to your own conclusions.

Based on our extensive research, "self-healing" is a marketing term for cutting mats made a certain way that shouldn't be taken any more literally than "farm-to-fork." Maybe this will change in the future with the advent of exciting advancements in biotech, but for now, we're convinced only living creatures have true, "self-healing" properties. :)

We're not exactly sure when this marketing term was introduced, but "self-healing" is now used universally (that's the only reason we use it) to describe any mat that's made of several layers of material (usually PVC) pressed together and structured in a way to make the top layer (there can be more than one top layer depending on the mat) push itself back to its original form after a cut.

We've found that "self-healing" mats, when used properly and taken care of, wear much better over time than any solid-material mats, and are much better for your cutting tools. However, even though the material pushes itself back into place, each cut still cuts the material, and every "self-healing" mat will show the cut marks and eventually wear down with use, especially if the cutting tools used are dull or if the cuts are made at angles other than 90 degrees. Therefore, a more correct term may be "cut-resistant."

We like to think our "self-healing" mats are the best on the market, and we've never heard of one wearing out outside of one case of unintended, repetitive commercial use. The disadvantage we have is the fact we've chosen to make all our "self-healing" mats translucent, so they can be used with the light boards for our customers' benefit, but that naturally just makes the cuts more visible than opaque "self-healing" mats, even if our mats actually wear better over time. Also if you've ever bought any of our Glow light boards, you know that they each come with one of our translucent, "self-healing" mats.

Hope this was helpful with understanding and expectations, and as always, please let us know if you have any questions and/or comments! Know also that we're actively working on "self-healing" mat innovation- expect to see some developments in this area very soon. ;)