As with any tool, I had to experiment a bit before I became proficient with it. Depending on the media that has been stapled, you will still have a few staple bread, but for the most part, this has sped up the process of removing staples from the chairs we have been recovering. The units with real hardwood were the tough ones where close to 50% of the staples would break. My technique was to pull what I could leaving the broken units for after I had pulled all I could. I would then remove the cloth by working it over the broken staples, then go back once I was down to bare wood and use side cutters to "gently" grab the staple and work it out. If it cut the staple at that point, then just hammer down the stub. Still better that the screwdriver method as this tool lifts more uniformly. On softer woods, it extract the staple cleanly and with just a few motions to work the staple up to engage the tool, then a quick lever back to extract the staple.