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People who know the formula for WD-40
Gift link: https://www.wsj.com/business/the-secret-society-of-people-who-know-the-formula-for-wd-40-e9c0ff54?st=zbjngP&reflink=desktopwebshare_permalink https://www.wsj.com/business/the-secret-society-of-people-wh...
- deleted 9mo ago[deleted]
- hurricanepootis 9mo agoCouldn't WD-40's formula be reverse engineered using analytical chemical techniques? GC-MS, NMR, etc.
- 542458 9mo agoRelated, somebody recently did this for Coke. There's a video on YouTube (I'd link it but my anti-procrastination filter is on). But yes, I strongly suspect a motivated party could use analytical chemistry to work it out.
- pogue 9mo agoHa! ;)
- throwawayq3423 9mo agoI imagine the "what's next" is the same for replicating Coke or WD-40, you have a similar product and none of the name recognition or ad spend. Not worth much.
- pogue 9mo agoThe guy on YouTube who just recreated the formula of Coca-Cola with HPLC & etc should take a crack at it Perfectly Replicating Coca Cola (It Took Me A Year) by LabCoatz https://youtu.be/TDkH3EbWTYc https://youtu.be/TDkH3EbWTYc
- xeonmc 9mo agoInstructions unclear. Taste-tested WD40.
- guerrilla 9mo agoIt smells so fucking good though, don't you think? You almost want to taste it.
- hahahahhaah 9mo agoNo that was the Pepsi
- cryptoz 9mo agoThe title is clickbait though, he admits near the end it is not in fact a perfect replication. I could feel this of course, long before even starting to watch it. Still, upsetting because otherwise it’s an entertaining video.
- pogue 9mo agoThe main ingredient he is missing is coca leaf. I used to buy Mate de Coca tea from Peru/Boliva no problem. It's a decocanized coca leaf tea. Shame he didn't hunt around or try harder to get it.
- capitainenemo 9mo agoHe said his first order of decocanised cocoa leaf was seized at the border. I can see that discouraging trying again, esp when he's trying to make something others could reproduce. He did find a pretty good substitute for the primary cocoa leaf ingredient though. Also, what he made was virtually indistinguishable in the taste tests. One person said that his tasted closer to the 2L of coke than the can of coke did, which suggests the final bit could just be carbonation level of the soda stream.
- Spooky23 9mo ago
- Scoundreller 9mo agoSorta, it’s a mix of mixtures of molecules so you also need to consider the makeup of whatever compound it’s made with (but it’s probably something dumb like kerosene). Reality is you’d want to make something with similar physical characteristics and call it a day. Kinda like how we don’t bother with hplc on gasoline, you just fill your car with something that meets the specs and get on with life
- p0w3n3d 9mo agokerosene Like in Grog
- loosescrews 9mo agoTo some extent. There are limitations on the technique, including, but not limited to, not determining the relative concentrations and not detecting all components. The WSJ article actually links to an older Wired article about doing gas chromatography and mass spectroscopy on WD-40 and the results: https://www.wired.com/2009/04/st-whatsinside-6/ https://www.wired.com/2009/04/st-whatsinside-6/
- hurricanepootis 9mo agoYou could use techniques like HPLC to determine the concentrations within the sample if you know what's in it.
- dylan604 9mo agoTrying to come up with that would result in WD-38, WD-41, etc. Can't read the paywalled article, but Water Displacement formula 40 seemed to be the best of the formulas for being a lubricant.
- daedrdev 9mo agoKnowing all the molecules in it might be only a minor step towards actually making it, especially since some inputs of production might not be present in the final product.
- IshKebab 9mo agoIt probably wouldn't be that hard. This mystique is mostly marketing. I mean it's not like WD-40 has no competitors on the market. It might not even be the best.
- krackers 9mo agoThe components are on the MSDS (albeit only the CAS codes not the specific chemical), only the percentages seem to be a trade secret? Basically a light carrier oil mixed with kerosene-esque solvent. I almost feel the secrecy is part of the marketing ploy, since w-40 in particular isn't the "best" tool for any job (there are better standalone degreasers and penetrating lubricants). No one who cares enough about the exact composition would bother using wd-40 in the first place.
- CamperBob2 9mo agoIt requires a special key, nondisclosure agreements, passage through a bank vault and, typically, an executive title. The drinks don’t flow, members don’t rub elbows with notable people and chefs aren’t filling plates with tasty bites. The only perk is knowing the secrets of the world’s most famous lubricant. And yet, for those in the know, there’s no greater privilege. In other news, WD-40 is not a lubricant.
- nodesocket 9mo agoAgree fundamentally WD-40 is a cleaner, but it does offer some lubricant outcomes.
- CamperBob2 9mo agoYep, there are lubricants listed in the ingredients, but the stuff it actually leaves behind when the volatiles are gone is mostly good at displacing water (as the article points out.) Very little in the way of friction reduction. It also makes a superb bug killer, especially in combination with a barbecue lighter.
- nodesocket 9mo agoInteresting use case. lol. I use it to remove sticker residue from the insufferable companies that use stickers on their products attached with super-glue like adhesive.
- pirates 9mo agoDoes it work better than something like Goo-Gone?
- bigstrat2003 9mo agoI hate that. In particular, there is a special place in hell reserved for businesses which put those stickers on books. It's almost impossible to get some of those stickers off without leaving residue or harming the paper.
- notpushkin 9mo ago> Gift link I think it’s okay to share the gift link as canonical. It’s the usual practice of sharing articles from LWN here, for example.
- parliament32 9mo agohttps://archive.ph/kfzIc https://archive.ph/kfzIc
- Etheryte 9mo agoHow to tell you didn't even read the submission you're commenting on.
- deleted 9mo ago[deleted]
- dwedge 9mo agoIt's the same article without the pay wall
- Etheryte 9mo agoThe article is already posted without the paywall in the submission description itself.
- treesknees 9mo agoThe actual submission link isn’t using the gift link. And “reading” the submission doesn’t reveal the end of the URL with the gift access token.
- joshstrange 9mo agoI don't know if that's really fair. It's much more rare for HN link posts to have bodies and this one is a single line of the gift link. Yes, that gift link works today but it's also completely reasonable to post the archive link.
- pwg 9mo agoWSJ 'gift links' often do not actually work. I don't know whether they have a "usage count" or a 'good for x time' expiration, but more often than not they don't work (beyond "gifting" a paywall).
- FrustratedMonky 9mo agoDoes article go into how it is manufactured without anybody knowing? Some manufacturing engineers somewhere must know. Unless they have own refining facility, and it is more like a recipe of temperatures/pressures.
- dantiberian 9mo agoI'd be very interested to know how they produce it if the formula is so tightly held. At some point people need to be purchasing the ingredients and mixing them together.
- nu11ptr 9mo agoExactly what I was thinking. I mean how can you produce something, esp. in bulk, when the exact ingredients and quantities aren't known? Assuming it is made in a typical factory, the machines would have to be programmed and that would typically mean someone has to know. I wonder if they split the knowledge over several different groups so a group only knows a single piece? Hmm....
- fabiensanglard 9mo agoThis is how they do it. There was a documentary about coca-cola and they explained that they completely separated the supply pipeline. Operators manipulate unlabelled sources coming from separate parts of the company.
- atombender 9mo agoIt's a myth that Coca-Cola is a closely held secret, though. Any food flavoring specialist can reconstruct the flavor of Coke almost exactly. A few years ago I (not a specialist!) made lots of batches of OpenCola, which is based partly on the original Pemberton recipe, and it comes so close that nobody could realistically tell the difference. If anything, it tastes better, because I imagine Coke doesn't use fresh, expensive essential oils (like neroli) for everything. The tricky piece that nobody else can do is the caffeine (edit: de-cocainized coca leaf extract) derived from coca leaves. Only Coke has the license to do this, and from what I gather, a tiny, tiny bit of the flavour does come from that.
- deleted 9mo ago[deleted]
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- lgleason 9mo agoand yet their revenues are not even 1 billion.
- CAP_NET_ADMIN 9mo agoWD-40 is not really that great at anything, people buy the brand name, that's it. The formule being public probably wouldn't change much
- OutOfHere 9mo agoIt or its variants probably contains PFAS which probably makes it hazardous to spray. Also, I suspect that breathing its ambient vapor while spraying it is is bad for the body and brain. Canola oil works in practice for basic tasks, but requires routine reapplication.
- legitster 9mo agoWD-40 classic does not contain PFAS. Which is not to say you should breath it in. > Canola oil works super well in practice without any of these risks. I cannot advise enough against using canola oil for most lubrication purposes. It's biodegradable and will break down (good for some applications) but for the most part oil breaking down is a bad thing if you want to keep something well maintained. It would gum up over time, start reacting chemically with dust or other chemicals, and potentially even cause damage. Especially if you lubricate to prevent rust. Also, in the context of breaking loose bolts, oil alone doesn't have any capacity to break up or penetrate rust.
- OneDeuxTriSeiGo 9mo agoDo not use canola oil for most lubrication tasks. You should almost always be using lithium grease. Spray on white lithium grease works for most "architectural" or furniture uses (ex: door hinges, gas springs on chairs, garage door rails and chain, etc). For anything constantly moving (ex: gearboxes or bearings) you want a more viscous lithium grease (ex: red n tacky or lucas xtra/green). But in pretty much every situation (on land) you want to be using a form of lithium grease if you want to actually keep the interface lubricated.
- joshstrange 9mo agoMaybe I'm just a fuddy-duddy but my eyes about rolled out of my head reading this. The same article could probably be written about multiple companies and it'd be just as uninteresting. It's my understanding that there isn't anything special about WD-40, as in alternatives exist that can work just as well. Now, I think WD-40 is a brand name that can be trusted to work well more often than most alternatives but that is more about process than recipe (I would think). I've long thought that every restaurant/bakery/etc could publish their full internal cookbooks and not see a drop in sales. People don't buy it because they are incapable (or think they are) of making something, they do it because it's faster, they don't have all the ingredients, they don't have the time, they don't have the skill, the list goes on. I bet I could give the instructions, the equipment, and the ingredients to people and they'd still choose to buy it. Sure, you might lose a tiny bit of sales to "home bakers" [0] but I think it'd be eclipsed by people that saw/read/heard about the cookbook (maybe never even saw it) and that was enough "marketing" to get them in the door. I've always found "secret knowledge" to be a little silly. A sort of, security through obscurity. Knowing a recipe doesn't make you special, being able to build/run a company around it and make it consistently good does. [0] I love to cook, I sometimes like making copy-cat recipes. I cannot think of a copy-cat recipe that I made more than 2-3 times. While it's fun to do, it's never exactly the same, and I also believe that "food tastes better when someone else makes it". Also it can sometimes be just-as or more expensive to make some food items due to needing a bunch of ingredients that they don't sell in exactly the quantity the recipe calls for.
- Spooky23 9mo agoNothing gets gearhead nerds going more than arguing about lubricants and gas. Ask the wrong group of dudes about when to change your oil at breakfast, and they will still be going at dinner.
- TeMPOraL 9mo ago> I've long thought that every restaurant/bakery/etc could publish their full internal cookbooks and not see a drop in sales. Makes me think of all those stories[0] employing a "secret recipe" plot. Some baking/cooking recipe (or a whole cookbook), written down by grandma and passed down in the family, or such, is critical to the fate of a bakery/restaurant/Thanksgiving dinner/etc.; predictably, it gets stolen, and suddenly the meal everyone loves cannot be made anymore. It's a dumb idea if you think about it for more than a second - even the worst home cook will naturally memorize all the ingredients and steps after using the recipe more than couple times. If the process involves more than one person, there's bound to be copies and derivative documents (e.g. shopping lists) around, too. Recipes are good checklists and are particularly helpful when onboarding new cooks, but losing an actively used one isn't a big deal - it can be recreated on the spot by those who already know it by heart. -- [0] - One I've watched recently was Hoodwinked! - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hoodwinked https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hoodwinked!. Great movie, but out of all the absurdities in it, by far the biggest one was the whole "stealing recipes to put bakeries out of business" plot driver.
- TheJoeMan 9mo agoAs an alternative for better lubrication of two-metals-rubbing together (door hinges, simple tools, etc) I use Tri-Flow because it has PTFE that stays as a white powder. If you have a stuck bolt, PBBlaster wicks into the threads better. And if you have sticker glue, use GooGone.
- fransje26 9mo ago> Tri-Flow because it has PTFE that stays as a white powder. Ever-lasting PFAS for the win!
- TheJoeMan 9mo agoNot all PFAS are the same. PTFE is a large-chain molecule that does not break down into the harmful small water-soluble PFAS's for the usecases I listed. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polytetrafluoroethylene https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polytetrafluoroethylene
- legitster 9mo agoIf it wasn't eminently obvious, most of these "secrecy" programs are marketing fluff. The actual ingredients are literally on the safety data sheet: https://files.wd40.com/pdf/sds/mup/wd-40-multi-use-product-aerosol-low-voc-sds-us-ghs.pdf https://files.wd40.com/pdf/sds/mup/wd-40-multi-use-product-a... The company can brag that their formulation has a special blend of herbs and spices, but someone who wants to can obviously make their own special formulation and say that theirs is secret too. More importantly, the proof of the pudding is in the eating. And there is nothing particularly special about WD-40's formulation anymore. WD-40 consistently performs worse than nearly any other available penetrating oil. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xUEob2oAKVs https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xUEob2oAKVs It's a terrible long term lubricant (because it's designed to evaporate, it actually concentrates gunk and grime). WD-40 themselves have come out with improved "Specialist" formulations that mostly just copy other, superior products.
- Scoundreller 9mo ago> WD-40 consistently performs worse than nearly any other available penetrating oil. The video’s test showed wd-40 worked slightly better than kroil and pb blaster, which all performed in the same range, being not much better than nothing. That’s particularly interesting because of how often kroil/pb come up as recommendations to use instead of wd… Acetone+atf did better and liquid wrench penetrating fluid did the best, but *nothing* beats heat.
- greenavocado 9mo agoI second heat. I always go for heat if possible first. Bonus is it is mess-free generally.
- legitster 9mo agoI've had good luck with acetone+atf but I am surprised Kroil and PB Blaster didn't perform better as I have had lots of good experiences with both. Regardless, the main problem with WD-40 is the popular misconception that it's a decent lubricant.
- 9mo ago
- senderista 9mo agoIn the PNW at least there's a cult application of WD-40 as a fish attractant (applied to lures). Not sure if anyone's done any sort of controlled trial but lots of folks have sworn by it for decades.
- senderista 9mo agoPersonally I use Ballistol, silicone lube, graphite lube, and penetrating oil for all the applications WD-40 is marketed for.
- singleshot_ 9mo ago> the lubricant Are you absolutely, positively kidding me?
- htrp 9mo agohttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TDkH3EbWTYc https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TDkH3EbWTYc Relevant video on someone reverse engineering the formula for coca cola
- MagicMoonlight 9mo agoHow can you be the head of R&D at the company and you don’t know what the product is made of? Fuck me, these people get paid millions just for existing and they don’t have a clue what they’re doing.
- Fwirt 9mo agoWD-40 works great for its intended purpose. The problem is that they've marketed it the way that the dad from My Big Fat Greek Wedding raves about Windex. It's not a good lubricant, as many people have noted, as it evaporates and concentrates contaminants. It's not a good protective coating because again, it evaporates. What it is good at is drying off metal parts, and as a mediocre and cheap rust remover. If I accidentally leave some pliers or my socket set out in the rain, I soak them with WD-40, scrub off the rust with a wire brush, and wipe off the excess with a towel. It does a decent job of preventing further damage. If I have some rusty parts sometimes I'll throw them in a glass jar, soak 'em with WD-40, shake them around, let them sit for a day or so, and then scrub them with a wire brush. Gets most of the rust off. If you want a lubricant, just buy the correct one for the job. Silicone oil, lithium grease, graphite, all will do a better job in the long run than WD-40 if you use them in their intended role. My goto "universal lube" personally is "Super Lube", a PTFE-based lubricant which is NSF rated for incidental contact with food and dielectric.
- user3939382 9mo agoIt’s like python. It’s not the best at anything but it’s a decent all arounder. Not everything that’s practical and useful has to be super specialized + best in class.
- aidenn0 9mo agoI prefer 3-in-1 as an all-rounder.
- topspin 9mo agoI've grown to dislike the smell of 3-in-1. It's not awful, but once it gets on the skin you smell it for hours, even after washing. I've started using M-Pro 7 gun oil for the same tasks. Not that it solves world hunger or anything, by I always have some around, I don't end up smelling volatile organics for the rest of the day.
- scrumper 9mo ago
- tonymet 9mo agoBezos fell for this gimmick too. It’s mineral spirits and oil . You can make it in your garage. The whole point of “the 40th formula” and this nonsense is fooling customers to keep buying a commodity
- Aloha 9mo agoNo, it has a significant amount of light petroleum components (read something akin to Naptha), plus other items meant to displace water.
- brikym 9mo agoSeems like marketing. ProjectFarm did a test on a dozen or so similar products and WD-40 isn't that good.
- darig 9mo ago[dead]
- treetalker 9mo agoMy understanding was that it was for water displacement (hence "WD") and not lubrication.
- fmlpp 9mo agoI really don't get how most comments don't get that "wd" stands for "water displacement". I buy and use it not for lubrication but for eliminating moisture and cleaning. What would you use in a distributor? Motor oil or penetrit?
- ycombinatrix 9mo agoThey do have a separate dry lubricant product that seems to work well.
- aidenn0 9mo agoDo cars even still have distributors? My last 3 cars have been coil-on-plug...
- KnuthIsGod 9mo ago" Our lab analyzed WD-40 with gas chromatography (GC) and mass spectroscopy (MS).: Mineral oil Decane Nonane Tridecane and Undecane Tetradecane Dimethyl Naphthalene Cyclohexane Carbon Dioxide" https://www.wired.com/2009/04/st-whatsinside-6/ https://www.wired.com/2009/04/st-whatsinside-6/
- userbinator 9mo agoNot surprisingly, that's just a mixture of mostly liquid alkanes, although "mineral oil" is amusingly imprecise --- I guess they just mean everything heavier than C14 (tetradecane). The dimethyl naphthalene might be an impurity.
- pjs_ 9mo agoGOAT lubricant
- FAFOAlex 9mo ago[dead]
- analog31 9mo agoI think that outside of narrow engineering circles, most use of lubrication is based on a mixture of trial-and-error, folklore, and marketing. One reason is that most lubrication needs are actually quite low performance, and you could probably use practically anything. People use WD-40 because they have it around, and this adds to the list of its uses. It's essentially a mixture of mineral spirits and oil. Used as a lubricant, the mineral spirits evaporate, leaving the oil behind. It might be enough oil to keep a mechanism working for a while, or it might not be. It's a "water displacer." Oil displaces water, who knew? It comes in a spray can, so you can get it into things like a bike shift lever. And you can get the over-spray on things like the garage floor. Bicyclists tend to get really worked up about WD-40.
- t1234s 9mo agoI've heard of a similar recipe vault at a large tire company.
- ggm 9mo agoI thought it was a good lawnmower carb boost to start one, until I used the real "start your lawnmower with one spray" and then I realised, WD40 was possibly just a placebo and gave my tired pull arm time to recover.
- burnt-resistor 9mo agoLubricant: terrible. Use something like an oil that remains rather than evaporates away. Rust prevention: marginal. Use proper coatings or a flash rust prevention compound that sticks around. Penetrating oil: terrible. Use 1:1 acetone:ATF instead. Toxicity: terrible. It's petroleum distillates. It's popular only because of missile hype and marketing, but that doesn't mean it's any good.
- 1970-01-01 9mo agoIt is an excellent temporary lubricant and is the preferred lubricant when installing or removing rubber hoses.
- burnt-resistor 9mo agoTemporary is useless and undesirable except for vanishing few applications except things like missiles that it was originally designed for and erroneously cargo-culted as magical missile oil. Sewing oil and similar thin oils stick around longer. Silicone-based lubricants persist in contact with rubber. Water or soap and water is safer and cheaper for rubber hoses for manipulation. Just don't make the mistake of routinely inhaling or dipping one's hands in toxic compounds like MEK, carbon tet, TCE, and gasoline+TEL that my dad or grandpa did cumulatively because some of the cancers and other conductions are awful yet avoidable. Petroleum distillates are literally petrochem shit.
- VerifiedReports 9mo agoWho cares about WD-40? Evap-O-Rust is a much better product and more worthy of formula analysis.
- zombot 9mo agoA bakery I used to go to had highly excellent marzipan puff pastry. When the bakery closed because the master baker who owned it went into retirement, I asked for the recipe so I might be able to replicate the enjoyment. The answer was that he will take this recipe to his grave. I'd call that a secret.
- WaalkTheEaarth 9mo agobooooo paywall booooo booooo paywall
- WaalkTheEaarth 9mo agonever mind didnt notice the gift link
- ChoGGi 9mo agoIn my toolbox are Lithium spray, petroleum oil (deep creep or pb), PTFE spray, and super lube for facets.
- xenadu02 9mo agoFYI: none of the "penetrating oils" actually work. They don't wick into threads on stuck fasteners. Heat is the only thing that really works. Causes expansion of the metal followed by shrinking which mechanically disrupts the oxide jamming whatever is stuck. WD-40 is great for machining aluminum, cleaning grease/other oils, and if you want a mild temporary lubricant not something that will make a massive mess or irritate your skin.
- jayde2767 9mo agoPlease tell me, it has Brando in it, right?!?!?
- scotty79 9mo agoHow is it legal to have a chemical product on the market with not publicly disclosed contents in 2026? There is no scarcity of the products. Capital, means of production, labor and innovation are all abundant now. The most valuable thing now is access to customers. We should demand a lot from the business for the privilege of having access to customers. A lot more than we do now.
- AceyMan 9mo agoA germane chemistry story but not about lubricants. I grew up in Atlanta. My mom was a scientific librarian and for a while she worked in the chemistry department at Coca-Cola. She worked with the guys who knew the syrup secret formula ("7x"). She told me she had to burn her carbons (this was before duplicating machines). She could take shorthand and perfectly type organic chemistry expressions using just a regular typewriter; truly lost skills, anymore.