Spudger

Spudgers

The term spudger describes a general class of tool used for poking or adjusting small wires or components, generally in the electronics or telecommunications industries.

The most common spudger is a black or yellow nylon stick, with a bent metal hook at one end. Various versions have blunt, sharpened, or insulated hooks. The hook can be used for pulling bridge clips from 66 blocks, manipulating wires in a crowded wire wrap block, or setting DIP switches. The body of a plastic spudger is usually contoured to offer a better grip.

Spudger may also refer to orangewood sticks, used in electronics assembly and soldering because of their heat tolerance and dense grain. The same orangewood sticks are commonly used in filmmaking and manicure/pedicure, but these industries do not use the term spudger.

The spudger is also called a non-marring nylon black stick tool or simply black stick in Apple Computer repair manuals, where it is the recommended tool for prying apart iBook, MacBook, and MacBook Pro enclosures. It is used for keyboard removal and LCD disassembly by many laptop manufacturers.

In the telecommunications industry it is sometimes also referred to by the slang term "booger picker" or "booger hook."