My pot has a bail on it but sometimes even that gets hot. If I have my rag wool gloves, they work fine as pot holder. Otherwise I use my dinky little Leatherman squirt pliers or a local green leaf or two. Never really thought about it much.

How did you burn the gloves??? If you have that much heat coming up the sides of your pot, you're wasting fuel. My pot is really wide and squat to capture more heat and I try and keep any flame from licking up the sides. My pot has never been hot enough to burn anything. Since I use Esbit or cook fires, 'turning down the heat' means covering the flame with tin foil. If you are using a gas stove, turn it off before removing your pot.