Here's an idea, have an ingame store that allows you to buy items from other players with your steel. Like, I've got my Warden pretty much how I want her at the moment, so I end up melting a ton of Rare and Heroic gear. I'm sure someone would happily throw a few hundred Steel at me to get a lvl 21 Halidda crossguard. Let me sell it to them!

I would love to be able to sell my salvage for a bit of steel too. I don't think anyone would want to buy that, so maybe just give it to "the bank". Don't know what the exchange rate would be...I'm sure someone's got the micro-transaction overlord holding a gun to their head, but just know at least one player would use this.