I've had my 'self-healing' cutting mat for weeks now, and it's plugging right along with no cardstock-snagging gouges or anything. Held up to the light, I can see several scars in it, but the surface is still relatively smooth. It's a thick one-sided mat from Helix.

I have confidence in this mat to last me a few more months because of this, but I'm also pretty kind to my mat. I'll move my primary cutting area from one quarter of the board to another and give time between cuts for the mat to seal itself when I can't.

My big Chunky Dungeon build destroyed 2 mats.

--Chris

I'm still using my original cutting matt from college along side my relatively new one. I've been extremely hard on my matts with all kinds of cutting rigor for years and they continue to hold up well. A good matt should be self healing and last you YEARS no matter what kind of abuse you put it through. That and your blades will last twice as long (as others have stated).

For the record I'm using Alvin and OpMark cutting matts.

For the record, I still have the same mat, and the cuts never got worse than after the first week. It's almost as though it reaches a happy medium. I shouldn't have to get another one for quite a long while.

You know, unless I geek out and find a huge, thick, double-sided one... with a 1" grid.