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Smitty Two

In article ,
(Dave Platt) wrote:

A bit of Googling on the subject of "WD-40 sticky" suggests that the
problem with stickiness developing, seems to involve use of too-large
amounts of WD-40 in situations where the lubricated device is exposed
to significant amounts of dust and dirt in use (e.g. pocket knives,
hand tools, etc). The residual oil (the nonvolatile part of WD-40) is
apparently rather viscous, and can be prone to pick up dust/dirt and
form a sticky sludge under these conditions.

I think it's just the opposite; stickiness developing from using *too
little* WD to flush out the dirt that was there to begin with. For
instance, a common use of the stuff if for locks, and there's a whole
militia of detractors who oppose that quite strongly. Yet in 40 years of
using it on all manner of locks, I've never had one go sticky on me
later. I spray copious amounts in, flushing everything out, then operate
the lock a dozen times, then spray in gobs more. Rinse and repeat.
Cleans and lubricates. More is better. No matter how much you use, only
one layer will remain after the volatiles are gone, so make sure that
layer is squeaky clean to start with.