WD-40: Historical perspective as a Cleaner

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Mad Magyar

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Most, or perhaps all of us, are victims of the advertising blitz. If it wasn’t successful, this would be a drab world. We choose our products based on testimonials, data, sometimes distorted, and most of all visual presentation. Whenever the question comes up on what products are best suited for cleaning our beloved guns: the WD-40 devotees show up to a vociferous outcry from the users of Hoppes 9, Break Free, Shooter’s Choice, et al.…But why the use of WD-40?:confused: This question has intrigued me. I’ve read many gun rags over the years and I can’t recall an ad for WD-40 touting it as a gun cleaner until a recent visit to my barber, an old pistolero. In a 1968 issue of G&A, there it was: a nice pictured ad:
“Often imitated but never equaled. For 12 years gun owners, gun shops and gun clubs have found WD-40 to be the most versatile product of its kind. Easy to use, spray-on WD-40 prevents rust and corrosion, lubricates, and is an excellent bore cleaner. WD-40 won’t congeal, prevents jamming, unaffected by extreme temperatures, and is harmless to all finishes. Not a silicone. Visit your nearest sporting goods store.”
Now, I understand. Evidently, this product came on the market around 1956. Long Live WD-40! Actually, I don’t use it since I’m also a victim of advertising….;)
 
Water Displacement-40 - it is NOT a lubricant and as far as I can tell was never meant to be.!

It will soften and help shift cosmo - so it has some uses there but as for letting it get inside a gun - horror!! Once the volatile content has dispersed - what is left is IMO far from desirable. It might have some use for a wipe-down externally but there are way better things for that.

To advertise that stuff as a gun ''elixer'' would for me be tantamount to fraudulent representation!
 
P95 beat me to it. WD-40 is a hydrophobic, not a lubricant, cleaner, solvent, or any such thing. It's meant for flushing water out of carbureters and other small, enclosed spaces.
 
I've used it as a cleaner and light lubricant on my firearms for close to thirty years..picked up on it from my Uncle who was a gunsmith for 22 years - never had a gun he couldn't fix and could "hot blue" to beat the factory. I use other things for lubricants - now, mostly Amsoil synthetic motor oil and a little STP oil treatment - but the WD40 is good to clean hard to reach places out with (using a little air pressure with it!) and also to wipe down the outside with, at least in my neck of the woods. I've heard people say different things about it, good and bad, from other parts of the country. It evidently ain't everybody's cup of tea but it's worked great for me for a long time....it's not a one product "do all" but it is good for some things.
 
When younger a neighbor who collected firearms and hunted used WD40 by the gallon for cleaning.

He'd cleaned off his guns after one hunt and before he could take them out hunting again he got real sick. After about two weeks he was up and around and feeling well enough to go hunting again.

All of the guns he'd last used were locked solid and would not function.
He checked all the other guns in his collection and found them in similar condition. There was some sort of hardened film on them from the WD40.

I fix electronics and quit using WD40 to clean the old mechanical controls on TVs when I found it would completely lock them up after a month. That cost me money.

I now use Ed's Red for my firearms unless I need to use something else due to the stock. I use CLP afterwards.

I use "Blue Stuff" or "Cramolin" if I need to clean and lubricate an electronic control.

I've not used WD40 in years.

Mad Magyar said:
Most, or perhaps all of us, are victims of the advertising blitz. If it wasn’t successful, this would be a drab world. We choose our products based on testimonials, data, sometimes distorted, and most of all visual presentation.
Click to expand...
 
Since I have never seen the contents of WD-40 I don't know exactly what it is, but it has some solvent in it because most of it evaporates fairly quickly, I suspect the remainder is oderless kerosene and some waxes.
OK as a solvent, fair rust protection for short term use, poor as a lubricant, good as a penetrant and excellent for water displacement. Not my first choice, but if it is the only thing around it performs well at some tasks.
 
Never had Wd-40 clean a thing on guns, just keeps the parts flowing freely on full auto until it catches fire.
I concur: WD-40 does not clean guns. It displaces the water and rust so that parts move freely. Guns will rust after a bit of time.

BTW: WD= water displacement / 40= the 40th time tried, it worked.
 
I remember when WD-40 showed up. One day you never had heard of it the next day it was everywhere, a massive marketing blitz !!! But the company didn't develop ,make or package it , they only marketed it !!! And of course it was "good for everything ". Those that used it on steel,guns ,tools etc, found that it rusted immediately ! They got so many complaints that they had to put some rust preventatives in it .It has no place on guns or anything else but of coarse they found lots of SUCKERS !!! I don't rememer when it was introduced perhaps around 1970 ??
 
I used to sell industrial chemicals, one of the products we distributed was a water displacement lube, a competitor for WD40, we were encouraged to use the products to be familiar with how they performed a variety of functions. I thought the product was OK, but no better than WD40, I had also heard that WD40 wasn't that great for preventing rust, so I performed a little experiment, not real scientific but interesting. I took 3 ordinary paper clips out of a box, you probably know that most paper clips are lightly plated to resist corrosion, I laid 2 of those paper clips out on a paper towel, I sprayed one with WD40, I sprayed the other with our product, the 3rd was the standard, it got no treatment at all, I let the 2 I sprayed sit for a couple of minutes, then blotted the excess off. We had little 1 oz glass bottles for small samples, I filled each with tap water, labeled them and then placed a paper clip in each one. The next morning I was stunned to see the untreated paper clip already showed clearly visible rust, after 1 month the one treated with our product was starting to rust, the WD40 treated paper clip showed no evidence of rust, a year later showed the same results.

I sealed up those bottles on August 6, 1992, they are still in my desk as I write this, I pulled them out to double check, it's been over 13 years since I sealed those bottles, the untreated clip is badly rusted, the one with the product I sold is badly rusted, the one treated with WD40 shows no trace of rust after being underwater for 13 years!

Now from where I sit, WD40 has performed pretty well, it may not be perfect, there may be better, but I'm not complaining. ;)
 
New Albany shooting range in Columbus, Ohio has a springfield 1911 rental weapon with over 200,000 rounds through it. They clean it solely with WD-40. It's never been detail stripped. It's rare taken apart. And according to my good firiend who works there, "It doesn't get a good cleaning but once a year."

1911's are awesome, but it can't just be the weapon.
 
Never leave it for long periods of time on a gun. It'll turn into a solid varnish that will lock up the action and is very difficult to remove.

I got a free M1 Carbine that was soaked with it and put away for a decade.

Here's the thread.
 
I used to use it to clean shotgun barrels. It did a good job as a solvent. Then I recently used it to clean the gook out of a Makarov when I got it home. :what: If it will disolve that stuff, it will disolve anything. :D

There are a lot of better things to use for routine gun cleaning though.

If it moves and it ain't supposed to. Use duct tape. If it's supposed to move and it doesn't. Use WD-40.
 
When cars & light trucks had the non solid state points-n-condenser style igntitions, WD-40 was good to spray around and inside the distributor cap & plug wiring if things got wet.

Would get them going again a lot of times. Saw some [ahem] questionable folks that would 'help out' cars that stalled after driving through deep water...

Questionable guy would have driver pop hood, then QG would spray around distributor, etc. When car would then start, QG would say 'I used some of my special "DRI-Spray" {WD-40 can with label peeled off}. Stuff Costs me $100.00 a can. I only used a little bit, so give me ahhh uhmm $20, OK?'
 
Little known fact, WD-40 was developed by some defense contractors. When the technicians started taking samples home they decided to market it.

The product began from a search for a rust preventative solvent and de-greaser to protect missile parts. WD-40 was created in 1953 by three technicians at the San Diego Rocket Chemical Company.

Its name comes from the project that was to find a "water displacement" compound. They were successful with the fortieth formulation, thus WD-40.

The Corvair Company bought it in bulk to protect their Atlas missile parts. The workers were so pleased with the product, they began stealing it to use at home. The executives decided there might be a consumer market for it and put it in aerosol cans.

It is a carefully guarded recipe known only to four people. Only one of them is the "brew master."

About 2.5 million gallons are manufactured each year. It gets its distinctive smell from a fragrance that is added to the brew.
Click to expand...

Tex
 
I am pretty sure

it has been reformulated.

I used to use WD40 and a cigarette lighter to put flies to death in a rather dramatic fashion. Made one hell of a blowtorch.

Doesn't work these days. Think they got sued by some fool?

That may go a ways to explain how it "used to be" a miracle fluid, but is now held in low regard.

As far as the "13 year rust test", I think a more valid test includes water and oxygen, rather than water submersion. I saw several well-conducted and documented tests. These are the ones:

http://www.thegunzone.com/rust.html
http://www.6mmbr.com/corrosiontest.html

BTW, the last time I used WD40 on a pistol was when I fell overboard (off my boat) with it in my pocket. Blew it out w/compressed air, douched it in WD40 to force out the water, blasted out with compressed air to drive out the WD40, then cleaned with Eezox. Good stuff, that.
 
It works

great for loosening up stuck on labels. The older stuff with propane instead of carbon dioxide for propellant was +p in potato guns.
(See, Gun related).
 
my understanding was that it was reformulated so that it would not gum up so much. Will have to check the flame thrower thing, my friend once caught the nozzle on fire and threw it in the corner where it promptly blew out the windows and made everyone deaf. I would not be surprised if that was part of the reformulation too, someone suing over their flamethrower stupidity. U think its okay, but not great, on the other hand, I recently discovered Kroil.....
 
orionengnr said:
I used to use WD40 and a cigarette lighter to put flies to death in a rather dramatic fashion. Made one hell of a blowtorch.

Doesn't work these days. Think they got sued by some fool?
Click to expand...
I'm betting the formula's still the same, but that they've changed the propellant used in the aerosol cans to something non-flammable.
 
ktd said:
Will have to check the flame thrower thing, my friend once caught the nozzle on fire and threw it in the corner where it promptly blew out the windows and made everyone deaf.
Click to expand...

Seems like you should be able to charge someone like that with violating Darwin's Law and get their status revoked. ;)

Tex
 
I was in a gun store a while back,looking at a Ruger Speed six.The cylinder was not spinning too freely.So I mentioned it to the salesman...he says"no problem.."And sprays the crap out of it w/ wd40......it spun like a charm...that day anyway.I already heard that wd40 is not for guns,so I just shook my head and left.I'm starting to think that's the reason the cylinder was bound to begin with(consistant use of wd40).....:uhoh:
 
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