I've also read that if you put them in the bathtub with soapy water and scrub then dry and lie flat they will 'heal'. I think Karen's idea of the blade change is great! I was cutting something today and kept going back and forth over a spot that just wouldn't cut right . . . YUP, you got it - there was something pinned to the fabric and I was trying to cut through the pin. There goes another blade!