Cool & Unusual Things You Can Do With Aluminum Foil

I've often mused that aluminum foil is the unsung hero of the kitchen drawer.  It is used for so many purposes other than cooking though doesn't quite rival duct tape as a multipurpose item (but it sure tries).  Having had this thought, it was time to saddle up Google and see what folks do with aluminum foil that might be a little out of the ordinary.  Apparently this question has been asked before as there were a lot of results for my search query.  Here are some of the highlights from my quest.


Sharpen Scissors:  From what I read, you can take your dull scissors and cut up a few sheets of aluminum foil to get something of an edge back.  I've not tried it yet but I am going to when the opportunity presents.

Shine Chrome:  Ball up some aluminum foil, wet it, and buff away at your chrome stuff.  Haven't tried this one yet but apparently a lot of folks swear by the method.

Keep pets off furniture:  I did experiment with this one at my girlfriend's house where her five cats get on any surface - especially kitchen counters.  I put some sheets of foil on her granite counter tops and, sure enough, the kitties did not want to walk on it.  My GF, however, was not enamored of the idea of leaving the sheets of foil out.  I think you could use this, with kittens, as a training method.

Speed up ironing. Put sheets of aluminum foil under your ironing pad and they will reflect heat back towards the iron, reducing how many passes you will need to iron whatever you are ironing.

Clean your iron: As long as we are ironing we can run the iron over some aluminum foil and the starch will be transferred to the aluminum.  I am going to try this idea in the next few days.

Keep paint off door knobs.  Wrap aluminum foil tightly around door knobs before painting.  I imagine that would work for some other objects as well.

Polish your silver:  Line the bottom of a non-metallic pan with aluminum foil and then add baking soda until the foil is covered.  Add boiling water and then add your silver item making sure that as much of it makes contact with the foil as possible.  The tarnish will transfer to the foil as the water cools.  This is another idea I plan on trying as I buy a lot of silver-plated stuff from flea markets.

Reheat food in your hotel room:  Heat up aluminum foil with an iron and then wrap food item and it will warm up as the heat is transferred from the foil to the food.  Some claim you make a grilled cheese with this method though I imagine you have to iron the foil while the sandwich is in it.

Make hydrogen gas:  Probably not enough to run your hydrogen fueled car but still a pretty cool experiment.  Put aluminum foil in a jar with ammonia and tightly cap.  After a while you will have hydrogen gas building in the jar.  DON'T ACTUALLY DO THIS.  There are better ways to safely capture the gas using balloons, upside down test tubes, etc. 

Make electricy:This YouTube Video will show you how to make electricity using strips of aluminum foil.

Make a WiFi booster for your laptop:  This YouTube Video will show you how to make a nifty WiFi antenna of sorts that will boost your WiFi signal.





That's a pretty cool list of interesting ideas for aluminum foil that are clever and not at all related to cooking.  I am betting that many of you have your own great uses for aluminum foil so please leave a comment and enlighten the rest of us.