A great band name? Probably.
but I was wondering, for purely sick and fictional purposes, what would occur if one were to be burned by your basic blowtorch.
I imagine the fire is hot enough to cut your arm off, if it can cut metal, but is it possible to just ‘burn’ someone with it, or do you just get mangled?
jarbaby
Why you wanna know, Jess? Planning something for Siegfried and Roy when you hit Vegas? 
Anyhoo, based on my experiences with blowtorches (and microtorches, and arc welders, etc) the most likely outcome of any arm/blowtorch interaction would be a very bad burn.
It depends, though, on
a) how hot the flame is
b) how long it’s applied for
c) how close the torch is to the arm
If you just HELD a blowtorch to someone’s arm, they would get a nasty burn indeed. I’m thinking any more than ten seconds or so would result in 3rd degree burns. It would be theoretically possible to cut someone’s arm off with a blowtorch, but remember that humans are mostly water, and would be considerably harder to cut through than metal.
Metal that’s being cut with a acetelyne torch is essentially melting out of its path, after all. Humans would (theoretically) require both a higher tempature and longer cutting time to produce the same results.
A white hot WIRE, on the other hand, could go through flesh quite quickly and has the benefit of cauterizing the wound a s it passes. If you’re looking for a cool way to cut someone’s arm off, try water cutting, as seen here:
Close up full-gas mix blowtorch injuries are not nice, one way to get one is to leave the torch burning and hooked on a bench or vice whist you are doing something else and then rediscovering it as you forgetfully reach your hand right in front of the flame.
Such an injury could involve not just the obvious burn but it literally blasts the destroyed flesh away leaving an utterly horrible, deep burned out gash.
Oddly enough it need not be as painful as you might expect because the destruction of the nerves and deeper skin tissues is so complete, still hurts though.
Most people burn themselves on the hot metal the torch has heated up.
You could set a torch without the oxygen so that you get a yellow flame from it, you can pass your hand through it and not get hurt if you do it reasonably quickly, but too slow and you will get scorched.
Why would you want to know what sort of injury you could inflict on ‘someone’ ? This is a strange request.
I’m a strange minded writer with an unnatural affinity for welders.
I don’t plan on harming anyone in real life. 
jarbaby
You’re not the only one.
Years ago I read a novel which included a torture scene involving the application of a blowtorch to the victim’s bare legs and feet. I don’t remember the title or writer or even what the novel was about - though I suspect it wasn’t a children’s story - I just remember that one scene. It went into great detail about how the victim’s skin crisped, blackened and sloughed off at the flame’s touch, as he writhed and screamed on a table. There was also something about the torturers keeping him awake through all this with drugs. Kinda creepy, but then I’m a fan Clive Barker and Thomas Harris (at least I was before the Hannibal debacle).
[sub]To my knowledge, neither Barker nor Harris wrote the book containing the blowtorch scene.
Kamandi: Stephen King, Misery.
Just remember… Gentle pressure. Gentle pressure.
Nothing like some light, summer reading.
I’ll spare you the details, but go to Google and research the infamous New Mexico prison riot of 1980 for some real-life details that will far exceed fiction. I believe amyl nitrate was used to keep the victims awake during creative blow-torching.
I saw a guy get burned with a torch; he was a welding teacher.
He was explaining to us all the reasons we may want to sign up for his class. I guess he got so into it that he forgot about the torch and just applied it to his forearm.
The area from his wrist to his elbow got very shiny and he started screaming. I decided not to sign up for his class.
The bottom line is, if you wanted to get your revenge on an evil welder, applying his very own blow torch to his skin would be the way to go, no?
jarbaby
jarbaby, you are one sick puppy.
You can shack up with me anytime!
OK, flirt’s over. You can get back to the question now.
Yeah, that’d be cool, but you could also weld him into an airtight steel coffin (alive, of course). Or you could go the Clive Barker/Borg route and somehow turn him into a blowtorch - driving him mad with the horror of the transformation, of course. You’d probably have to gain the favor of a deranged plastic surgeon, though…but think of the descriptive possibilities!