The thermodynamic adhesion work of AISI 4140 flat plates and AISI 52100 steels in contact with two commercial anaerobic adhesives was evaluated by measuring the advancing and receding contact angles in an immersion-emersion tensiometer. The polar and non-polar adhesive components were calculated by the van Oss method for all the adhesive-metal pairs tested. The effect of the application of a primer on the metal surface was also considered. The results showed that application of the primer nada significant effect on the wettability of adhesives, although the adhesion work remained practically unchanged with respect to the pure adhesive-metal joints. On the other hand, major differences on the response of the two commercial were observed between the two commercial adhesives studied, mainly as a consequence of their chemical composition and rheological properties.