They are used, amongst other things, in hobby work for precise and clean cuts of paper, cardboard or textiles using a scalpel or rotary cutter.
Vinyl chloride (soft or hard plastic) and alkene are the most common materials.
Some cutting mats are marketed as "self-healing",[3] but this claimed functioning is not well documented.
Ordinary cuts in the plate itself will therefore often not be very visible in the form of surface irregularities even with repeated use, unless the surface cuts are done in a V shape, which, on the other hand, quickly will leave irregularities that make the mat difficult to use.
For occasional and ad hoc work, one can instead use old newspapers, magazines, cardboard or the like instead of a dedicated cutting mat.