Heat transfer

[Oldboy913]

If you are heating the end of a steel rod in a brazier, you can hold your end without protection until you plunge the hot end in water, then for some strange reason your end gets too hot to hold, why?

[nightmare]

The simple answer is time. It takes a finite time for the heat to travel along the rod.
If you held two identical rods in a brazier, then removed them both at the same time and plunged one in water, they would both get too hot to hold at the same time, as the heat continues to travel along them both from the heated ends.

[Oldboy913]

Sorry that's not the case, you can hold the rod in the fire for as long as you like and still hold it. I think the answer is far more complicated. If you get a chance try it yourself.
Thanks for answering nightmare.