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

Go pick up a metal spoon. Then go pick up a wooden spoon (ladle/spatula watever)… the metal feels colder right?

But they have both been in in your house for a while and both at room temperature. However, the metal is far more conductive and can ‘steal’ heat from you faster than the wood can.

This also works the other way, hot metal can dump heat into you much more quickly than wood.