Olfa Rotating Cutting Mat review

If you’re working with material like card, paper or fabric, a durable cutting mat is an essential purchase. While there are cheap options out there, it’s worth spending a little bit more to get a proper self-healing mat, as these will simply last and last for many years of cutting and crafting.

The Olfa Rotating Cutting Mat is an interesting option from one of the most well-regarded brands in cutting mats. Coming in two pieces, it features a rotating 360° design that allows you to cut, rotate, and cut again, without having to move around your material.

If you’re cutting card for photo frames, working with paper for collages or cutting fabric to size, the Olfa Rotating Cutting Mat could well be just what you’re looking for. I took it for a spin – no pun intended – to see how well it works.

Specifications

In use

The Olfa Rotating Cutting mat consists of two pieces – the mat itself, and the black base, which allows the mat to rotate via a plastic black disc that inserts into a hole in the centre. Simple, but it really works, meaning that when you need to change the angle of your cut, you can simply spin the mat rather than having to either physically move around it or re-affix your material. This is much faster, and means you can potentially work in more cramped spaces.

Most OLFA cutting mats are double-sided, with metric on one side and imperial on the other. The rotating mat, by nature of its design, is not, meaning you get one or the other. I didn’t pay as much attention as I could have when ordering, and ended up with the mat that was 17 inches by 17 inches – which, as I’m a dyed-in-the-wool European, would not have been my preference. So check which you’re getting before you buy!

Another factor of the rotating design is that the OLFA mat does not fold or roll up like some cutting mats do. It also wants to be stored flat, according to the manufacturer, so you may want to think about where exactly in your home you’re going to put a 17-inch flat board before you order one.

Fortunately the cutting process itself is great. The layered material of the mat provides just the right level of resistance for easy, smooth cuts, and the self-healing surface really does work – I hacked and slashed away with an X-Acto knife to cut some pieces of card, taking less care than I would if I weren’t reviewing it, and when I was done, there were no visible cuts on the surface.

The grid system makes it easy to precisely line up your cuts, and there are handy angle lines for making cuts at 30°, 45° and 60°.

Verdict

While there is no shortage of broadly similar cutting mats out there for you to choose from, the Olfa Rotating Cutting Mat offers a genuine USP in its rotary design, and for that reason is strongly worthy of consideration. It helps you cut faster and more efficiently, and the self-healing surface is as durable and effective as we've come to expect from this leading brand.

See our guide to the best cutting mats, and also look at our rundowns of the best mat cutters for mounting and framing your photos