21 Strange and Ingenious Uses for WD40


Olde Hornet

Well-Known Member

What can you do with a can of WD40? Lubricate M-16s, catch bigger fish, de-ice rod guides, clean turtles, repel pigeons, remove dog poo, make a flame-thrower, and much, much more.

How was it? Save stories you love and never lose them.

If you could take the American spirit—equal parts Daniel Boone, Chuck Yeager, and Elon Musk—and distill it into an aerosol, it would be a blue-and-yellow can of WD40. A 1983 survey revealed that 4 in every 5 American homes had a can of WD40 in them. Among Field & Stream readers, that figure is probably 19 out of 20.

For more than 60 years, we’ve been relying on the 40th attempt of a Water Displacement formula to fix, well, whatever needs fixing. The WD40 website promotes dozens of uses for their product, as well as a list of 2,000 uses submitted by actual users. Some are genius. Some are just plain wacky. We have sprinkled our favorite 20 throughout this article, both from that list and from the body of popular lore that has arisen around the miracle spray. As surprising as any of them is the story of just how WD40 came to be, and how it became a staple in garages across America.
 
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