You have to slam the pounce a couple of times before swiping. I watched DH of the couple that owns the company of the Pounce demo it. He said SLAM the pounce several times, get the chalk saturated in the pad. He really slammed it. He had everyone use it on a stencil. The ones that were complaining it didn't work were not slamming it so the pad was not getting saturated. They left happy.