soldering iron tips, why do the gas ones wear out ?

Can't agree, they all wear away, probably because the flux is caustic, also tinning agents. Then there's the filing to keep the edge bright.
Unlike other things, the more you use it -the more you lose it.
It's copper to retain the heat, which the work is trying to suck away, and then there's the latent heat of tin and lead... and the draughty shed.
I use a paint stripping hot air gun to assist quite often.
 
Maybe you have it set too hot? if it's at the right temperature the flux in the solder should help protect the tips and should last many hundreds of hours, ours do in the workshop but they are temperature controlled.
If it's too hot, the flux will burn off leaving the solder to oxidise resulting in knacked tips and poor soldering.
Once the iron is up to temperature turn it right down unless you're soldering something which needs some grunt.
 
Soldering iron tips are copper, the lead/tin in solder causes migration of copper from the tip into the melt. There was a version of solder available with copper in it to help prevent this. the idea being that if the copper is already there in the melt pool it's less likely to migrate from the tip. Soldering iron tips are iron/nickel/chrome plated to help prevent this but eventually all good things come to an end when the plating fails. Gas irons are particularly prone because they can get far too hot. Answer is to use the minimum setting you can to melt solder, this is exacerbated by working outdoors as gusts of wind will cool the iron, so work indoors if you can.
 
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