I'm learning that just because you think a blade will work better on a specific medium does not mean anything!

If you do not test it, you end up wasting time and that particular medium.

I was trying to use my knife blade and my deep point blade on what I considered thick adhesive foam, and both blades were tearing holes into the foam.

I switched to my fine point blade, and no tears.

No more feeling media with my hand and thinking, “This is thick. I should use this blade.”

The foam is thick, but it's not solid. I'm thinking it's the porous nature of it that doesn't allow the knife and deep point blades to actually cut it properly.

Something I observed when using the specific adhesive foam in the picture, the 9″ by 12″ specifically, is that it appears to “heal” itself on the side that sticks to the mat.

At first, I thought it was because there weren't enough passes to cut through it, but I tried 3x, 4x and 5x, and when I pulled the media off the mat it APPEARED not to be cut through.

I say “appeared,” because when I used my hands to separate the pieces, it pulled away without tearing or distorting.

It leads me to believe that the adhesive foam sheets in the image above [9″x12″] are a different consistency than the smaller adhesive foam sheets that are 5.5″ by 8.5″ because the two times I did the smaller pieces, they cut completely through and separated from one another without me physically having to pull them apart.

Same brand. Different sizes. Odd.

9″x12″ cutting guide that I used

• Blade: Fine Point
• Cut Pressure: 350
• Passes: 4
• Pressure: Default
• Mat: StrongGrip [painters tape on edges]

I didn't keep the specs when I cut the 5.5″x8.5″, but I'll do another one and get those posted.