<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN"> <HTML><HEAD> <META http-equiv=Content-Type content="text/html; charset=iso-8859-1"> <META content="MSHTML 6.00.2900.3157" name=GENERATOR> <STYLE></STYLE> </HEAD> <BODY bgColor=#ffffff> <DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Steel wool is bare ferrous metal and prone to instant rusting under the right conditions.  I've opened new packages of steel wool in the past and found a slight hint of an oil residue on it.  I'm guessing that this is to prevent rusting by the time the consumer buys it in the event it remains on a store shelf for a long time somewhere humid.  I would speculate the wool you had may have had an excess amount of protective oil.  The sparks got it going.  Weird!</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV> <DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Rob Goodale, RPT</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Las Vegas, NV</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV> <DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV> <BLOCKQUOTE style="PADDING-RIGHT: 0px; PADDING-LEFT: 5px; MARGIN-LEFT: 5px; BORDER-LEFT: #000000 2px solid; MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px"> <DIV><FONT face=arial,helvetica><FONT lang=0 face=Arial size=2 FAMILY="SANSSERIF" PTSIZE="10">Today I had a fresh roll of 0000 steel wool catch fire from grinder sparks. Just 5 seconds of low level flame (like alcohol flames) and another 5 second of glowing strands until it went out. Of course it went out -- steel is not a combustible material!!<BR><BR>I was using an angle grinder (hand held, and this wasn't piano work). The sparks were shooting about 3 feet across my bench where the roll of steel wool was. If it had been resting on something like paper towel, that might have been more serious.<BR><BR>Watch your sparks!<BR><BR>John Baird</FONT> </FONT></DIV></BLOCKQUOTE></BODY></HTML>