When watching forging videos on YouTube, you can see that metal heated oxidises, and the resulting scale comes off when the steel is struck with a hammer. Would the same thing happen if you were to hook that same piece of steel up to, for example, a powerful battery and run an electric current through it to heat it up? And why/why not?
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It would also lead to corrosion / scale formation, but would be slower.
Most flames convert hydrogen and oxygen into carbon dioxide and water.
There’s a rule of thumb for chemical reactions – that their speed doubles every 10 degrees C, and if you have super hot water near bare metal, it will form oxides.
You will see this effect with electrical heating also, but it’s pulling water from the humidity in the air, which is much colder.
Oop – realized the oxygen is *also* coming from the air!
Yes, it will still happen. Likely even faster than in a gas forge because none of the oxygen the steel will react with has been consumed by the fire.
This is why incandescent light bulbs need to encase the filament in glass, to keep oxygen away from it.
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