Along with the hammer, the screwdriver might be the most abused tool in your toolbox. Heck, a big one can even be used as a hammer in a push. Instead of tut-tutting and telling you to look after your tools (which you totally should btw), today we’re going to look at all the non-screwing things that you can do with a screwdriver. We’re going to get pretty creative here, but—content warning—things are also going to get pretty nasty. 

Paint Can

My dad had a big old flat-head screwdriver that he used exclusively for prying open paint cans. It was the only tool he ever abused in any way. I’d get into trouble for banging a hammer too hard, so this exception was notable. 

Looks like this one was opened with a spoon? Photo Astrid Schaffner

We also used this screwdriver to stir the paint, so the whole shaft was a pretty thick mess of dried paint layers.

Abuse factor: 2/10 Paint cans are not really a match for a hardened screwdriver tip. Scrape the paint off, and it should be restorable to its original function.

Electromagnet

This is a fun one. Wrap a sheathed wire around and around the shaft of the screwdriver in a spiral. Get in as many turns as you can. Then, connect power across the two ends of the wire. It will work with an AA battery, but a 9-volt PP3 or 6LR61 (the rectangular ones) is easier to connect. 

The wire will heat up and may end up melting depending on exactly what wire/battery combo you use, but as soon as you connect the power, the coiled wire will induce a magnetic field in the steel screwdriver shaft. 

Is it useful? Not really, unless you need a magnet to rescue a lost screw from a tight spot (the exact reason we put a magnetic bit in the iFixit Mako toolkit). But it’s a lot of fun, especially with kids. 

Abuse factor: 0/10 No screwdrivers will be harmed in this exercise. 

Can Opener

Most canned goods these days come with a ring-pull opener built in. A flathead screwdriver is often better than a fingernail for prizing the ring away from the lid of the can. And if you break the ring off, then the screwdriver can be used to break through the lid around the edges, where it is designed to operate anyway. 

That’s a nice screwdriver. Shame if anything happened to it. Photo Gunnar Ridderström

On old-style cans, which usually require a can-opener, it’s a bit more involved. For liquid food—soup, basically—you can punch a couple of holes, one for the soup to pour out, the other to let air back in. For everything else, you can punch lots of holes around the edge by placing a flathead driver just inside the rim, and whacking the handle with the heel of your hand. Do the same to break the connections between the holes until you can pry open one side. 

This is messy, dangerous, and will result in a very sharp, ragged edge. Be careful. 

Abuse factor: 5/10 Punching through metal will damage the screwdriver eventually.

Beer Bottle Opener

Potentially much less messy than the can-opener scenario, but also potentially more dangerous as it involves glass. You can also hurt a knuckle. Also, consider adding a proper beer-bottle-opener bit to your screwdriver kit, like this one. (Or if you’re in the EU, you can get yourself a snazzy iFixit-branded one.)

Hold the bottle’s neck in your fist, so your thumb and forefinger are snugged up around the edge of the cap. Wedge the edge of the screwdriver tip under the edge of the bottle cap. You’re going to use your thumb as the fulcrum to lever the cap off. Beware: it will hurt. This trick is better done with a BIC cigarette lighter or similar, as it spreads the pressure over more of your thumb. 

Another option is to angle the screwdriver so its tip is under the edge of the bottle cap, and the shaft/handle angled down and slightly away. Then, strike the end of the screwdriver’s handle on a tabletop or similar, and it should pop off the cap. It might also crack the bottle and leave you with shards, and a jagged ring in place of the bottle top. 

Abuse factor: 1/10 Still, not recommended. You’re more likely to damage your thumb than your screwdriver, so be careful! 

Oyster Knife

An oyster knife has a pointed (or almost-pointed) tip so you can slip it into the shell, and a wide blade so you can simultaneously twist it to open the shell, and cut the retaining muscle. 

A screwdriver has none of these things, but that kind of problem hasn’t bothered us up until now, so who cares? A screwdriver might end up cracking or pulverizing the shell, damaging the meat, and generally making a mess, but I would choose it over a regular kitchen knife any time. One bad slip from a sharp chef’s knife and you’re down a digit. 

Pick a screwdriver with a wide blade, short shaft, and chunky handle. And make sure to clean it well before you begin. 

Abuse factor: 1/10 There’s plenty to go wrong here, but none of it will hurt the screwdriver. 

Doorstop

Wedge the screwdriver under the door, and pull the door. Done. If it’s a small screwdriver, or you have an extra-large gap under the door, you might need to add something underneath to raise the handle end.

Abuse factor: 2/10 It’s possible that you’ll bend the screwdriver’s shaft, but much more likely that the shaft will dent the bottom of the door, or the tip will scrape a divot out of your lovely parquet floor. 

Chisel

Now we’re abusing the screwdriver to approximate another tool. I mean, a screwdriver kind of looks like a chisel, right? Except not sharp, and not designed to be whacked on the back with a mallet. 

Still, if it’s all you have, you can chisel out a bit of door frame when fitting a new strike plate. Or you can drill lots of holes in a piece of wood and use a flathead screwdriver to “cut” through the remaining parts between the holes to make a bigger hole. 

If you sharpen the screwdriver on a whetstone (or by scraping it across a brick wall or concrete curbstone), then it will work even “better.” I wouldn’t necessarily recommend this hack. But I have used it more times than I am comfortable admitting.

Abuse factor: 8/10-10/10 If you sharpen the screwdriver blade, you no longer have a usable screwdriver.

Soldering Iron

Obviously, we think the best soldering iron you can buy is our own FixHub Smart Soldering Iron. But if you’re in a pinch and have a power supply but no soldering iron, you can attach wires to a screwdriver and get it to heat up enough to melt solder.

Even without a power supply, you’re not necessarily out of luck: When we showed FixHub to Matthew Lubari, who runs repair efforts at the Rhino Refugee Camp in Uganda, he described once, during a power outage, soldering with just a screwdriver and a lighter to heat the metal.

If you absolutely have to solder something, and you happen to have solder but not a soldering iron, then a screwdriver will do the trick. Just heat the tip in the flame from a gas stove, or a blowtorch. 

Another beauty. Photo Chris Mclaughlin

Be aware that you have absolutely no control over the temperature, and once the tip is removed from the flame, it will start to cool. You might end up vaporizing your solder into a cloud of toxic mayhem, or melting the plastic handle of the screwdriver.

But it does work for emergency fixes. Don’t ask me how I know. 

Abuse factor: 9/10 The only reason this doesn’t get 10/10 is that there’s an even worse hack coming up. 

Cleaning a Floor-sander Band

This is some boss-level screwdriver abuse right here, and I’m only including it to show you how desperate things can get. 

Say you’ve rented a floor sander to sand a floor in your apartment. Say it’s Sunday evening, and you’re almost done, and the sander has to go back first thing tomorrow morning. And say that you’re on your last strip of sandpaper because you didn’t remove the nails and other hazards from the floorboards before beginning. 

Now, that final piece of non-shredded sandpaper is gummed up with melted varnish and won’t sand. What do you do?

Seriously, don’t try this at home. Photo Stephen Noble

What you should never do is lay the sander on its back, run it, and use a screwdriver to clear the varnish streaks from the speeding sandpaper band. That would be absurdly dangerous, even if you were already wearing goggles, gloves, and a painter’s mask. 

The worst part of this, apart from how stupid and dangerous it is, is that you can end up shredding your last sheet of sandpaper with a single slip, and that you’ll end up grinding the tip of the screwdriver into a useless, sharp stump. 

Abuse factor: 10/10 Do I need to explain why?

Using Other Things As Screwdrivers

This abuse goes both ways. There are plenty of things you can use as screwdrivers, some of which actually work quite well. Some screws and bolts are even designed to be tightened and loosened with not screwdrivers. A tripod mounting plate for a camera is usually sized for a coin, for example (here you can also use a coin-sized battery).

The go-to screwdriver replacements in the home will be from the cutlery drawer. Avoid kitchen knives, for obvious reasons, but a butter knife can fit some screw slots, as can the ends of the handles of all-metal cutlery. A spoon tip can also work in a push, but you’ll probably end up ruining the spoon and making it too sharp to eat with. 

Other options are nail files, any bit that hangs off the buckle of a watch strap (or perhaps a belt buckle), or the tip of a USB-C plug. 

Really, though, most things you’re going to try to use will end up ruined. Which is also the case for those poor screwdrivers we’re abusing, but there you go. 

As the saying doesn’t quite go: When all you have is a hammer, everything looks like a nail. But when all you have is a screwdriver, everything looks like a fun challenge.