Why do you want to handle the stone when it is hot? Mine is in the
oven all time, but even if you remove it you can wait until it cools
off. Put it in place before the preheat cycle and give the preheat
an extra 15 minutes. I use a peel to place the bread on the
stone. Most of the time I put parchment paper on the peel (with wet
dough I even put a little corn meal between the parchment paper and
the peel to be sure that the dough / parchment paper will slide
off). If you bake bread in a pan, put it on the stone. Direct heat
from below results in a better oven-rise.