I recently had the opportunity to use two different lubricants from Jig-A-Loo. I hadn’t heard about this company before and wanted to share my results with you (no, I’m not a shill, just excited about this product).

Jig-A-Loo silicon lubricant is the absolute slickest lube I’ve ever used. It’s more expensive than, say, WD-40, with $5 getting you 10.9 oz of Jig-A-Loo and 16 oz of WD-40, but this stuff is incredible when it comes to lubricating. Goes on dry, clear (doesn’t stain), and, did I mention, really amazingly slick?

I first heard about Jig-A-Loo because it’s one of the preferred lubricants for Rubik’s cubes. I accidentally bought their Extreme Graphite product first. Because graphite can handle extreme temperatures (-99 to about +1000 degrees), this product is ideal for applications like automobile engines. Not so much Rubik’s cubes. I shot the stuff into my cube and it immediately got all sticky. I think this might be because the graphite is suspended in an adhesive medium that allows it to stick to the surface to be lubricated. I kept turning the cube and it loosened up pretty quickly. If I had it to do over again, I would lay out the parts to be lubed, cover any surfaces that didn’t need lubing, or that I didn’t want to stain (see below), and spray a light coat over it from a distance of 8-10 inches, per instructions. The typical technique of just squirting the stuff into whatever you’re lubing and then turning the gears to work the lube in doesn’t seem to work with the Extreme Graphite product.

What seemed to happen is that it coated the surfaces it was applied to with a layer of graphite. Once the stickiness wore out, it was actually pretty slick, but it didn’t seem to work nearly as well as the silicon version. I guess if I needed an extreme-temperature lube, I would use it again, but not so much otherwise. Additionally, the graphite coating was more or less permanent. I had to scrape at it with a fingernail to get it to come off. For some applications, this would be great, but I would never put it on, say a firearm, because I wouldn’t be comfortable with my options for removing it if I decided I didn’t like it.

Additionally, I should point out that the graphite lube stains anything it touches black. Graphite, I’m guessing. So be careful when applying. This stuff is still worlds better than powdered graphite, because at least it stayed in place where I put it.

Jig10.9OZ Spr Lubricant link at Amazon.