I don't know if 3950 is a generic term, or what, but Adafruit lists what they call an "3950 NTC" thermistor that is a 10k, max 105C with epoxy coating and vinyl wire. So read the specs of what you are ordering. I've been bit by that before on type K thermocouples, where some I bought had a sleeve that turned out to be plain heatshrink. So it burned to black carbon when I Kapton taped it to the side of a soldering iron...
Sure, no reason not to use something simpler to interface for the temperature. It doesn't really need a 1% resistor, just one that is temperature stable. So don't get them out of your old junkbox of grampa's carbon composition resistors.
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Steven Greenfield AE7HD
Steven Greenfield AE7HD