My 8-year-old and 9-year-old boys have approached me with an interesting question. Does fire burn steel? One says yes, the other says no. Help me to settle yet another debate :)
no, fire MIGHT cause steel to oxidize, depending on the alloy, but think of steel as a block of ice. Steel melts at 2800 degrees F and boils and evaporates at 5400 degrees. Some metals like magnesium can possibly catch fire but not steel
It can burn it... but not the sort of fire you would find at home... Ive actually done it before in a silversmithing class with a very hot blow torch. It takes a long time, the metal first goes pink, then glowing orange red... it stays that way for a while, and then 'cracks' kind of loudly and basically disintergrates very suddenly. A torch this hot has a very hard (noisy) flame which is very transparent. But you cant burn it in the fireplace.
Fire doesn't burn steel, fire is the catalyst for steel to react with oxygen and burn though technically it's oxidizing. An intense flame like that found in an Oxy-Acetylene torch will bring the steel to melting point, then the operator would toggle a lever on the torch blasting pure oxygen into the steel causing it to oxidize and fall away from the workpiece. The afore mentioned steel wool exercise illustrates the principle on metal so thin that the heat provided by a candle allows for oxidization with the oxygen present in the atmosphere.
