In real life, when people want to vaporize iron, [*] they generally don’t just put it over a heat source. They either use induction heating to heat the iron with electromagnetic fields or electron beams to vaporize it a little at a time. One nice thing about electron beams is that you can use a magnetic field to curve the beam around, so the really exciting and dangerous stuff happens on the other side of the iron from your delicate equipment.
