I think your laser was 40mW. A 40W laser can engrave steel.
It was one of these: https://www.ipgphotonics.com/en/products/lasers/low-power-cw...
Igniting something is actually quite different from cutting or engraving. Lasers are often so good at cutting because they don't deliver enough energy to set things on fire, but enough inatantaneous intensity to rip molecules apart (have a look at comparisons between femtosecond and nanosecond laser cutting for example).