Eli5: How come wood stays cool to the touch in high temperature environments (e.g. saunas) when all other common materials would be hot?

Question

Eli5: How come wood stays cool to the touch in high temperature environments (e.g. saunas) when all other common materials would be hot?

In: 671

Answer 1

The same reason if you put a dowel and piece of metal in a fire, you could hold on to the wood essentially until it burns to your hand, while the metal will rapidly transfer the heat throughout its mass, and will soon become to hot to handle.