In San Diego, USA, there is one of the most restricted “clubs” in the world: the group of executives who know the “all-rounder” WD-40 formula.
According to the Wall Street Journalthe recipe for the most famous lubricant in the world is kept in a bank vault in the city and access requires a special key, confidentiality agreements and security worthy of a movie. The CEO himself, Steve Brass, was only authorized to see the notebook with the formula more than 30 years after joining the company.
The document is a handwritten notebook that is kept at a Bank of America branch in a confidential location. According to the newspaper, it almost never leaves the safe: this has only happened three times in the last 30 years, including a promotional action in New York, a safe exchange carried out with an armored car and, most recently, in 2024, when Brass and the financial director, Sara Hyzer, signed papers at the bank and were able to leaf through the notebook for a few minutes.
Opportunity with security!
There, the 39 attempts that went wrong and the 40th formula that worked are recorded — the “WD” comes precisely from water displacement (water displacement).
Not even those with the technical profile to understand the original formula have unrestricted access to it. Global head of research and development Meghan Lieb told WSJ who joined WD-40 two decades ago thinking that, over time, he would know the exact composition of the product — something that never happened.
In practice, most teams work with codified versions of the formula to develop new uses and derivatives, preserving the secret even from scientists and innovation executives.
Outside the company, the mystery fuels theories and rumors. On internet forums, consumers speculate whether the product contains fish oil, orange peel, coconut or even vanilla, hypotheses that the company has already denied.
A technology magazine even sent the product for laboratory analysis and listed some components, but, according to a spokeswoman interviewed by the Wall Street Journalthe description is too generic to allow any copying — something similar to saying that you know the formula for Coca-Cola just because it mentions sparkling water, sugar and caramel coloring.
Inside WD-40, the atmosphere is more proud of the secret than frustrated at not knowing it. Employees joke around trying to guess who has already seen the notebook and who could still join the “club”, while the CEO admits, in a good-humored tone, that he might expand the list if the company reaches its goal of earning US$1 billion.
