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ScienceSquirrel
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Mood: Dogs are pets but cats are little furry humans with four feet and self determination! 
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Looking at this experimental procedure I would guess that the yield is very low.
http://faculty.rmc.edu/jthoburn/ChemArt/EX03.Potash.pdf
Making respectable amounts is going to require bins full of water and ashes, big pans for boiling down and lots of fuel.
I suspect that if you had a big heap of wood to get rid of, lots of time and a lot of big gear you could make a kilo or so which would be worth less
than a tenner on eBay!
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Neil
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Ack! I was relegated to the spam sandwich along with PHD
Original patent for improved production of potash
http://www.patentstation.com/mdm/firstpatent.htm
It seems that from an acre of old growth you would get about a tonne of potash.
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ScienceSquirrel
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So a couple of trees or a whole heap of pallets for a kilo? 
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blogfast25
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I did it once when I was about 16. A whole heaped bucket from our open fire, not sure how much in weight. Went through the motions and sure enough I
got a bit of potash, a few tablespoons full of the yellowish stuff. I remember foolishly converting it KCl, which is a pretty useless substance
really.
Still, leaching it from wood ash was once a main source of K-alkali. If the yield was about 100 g per 1 kg of ash it probably still would be.
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watson.fawkes
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Quote: Originally posted by Neil  | | I am having a hard time finding cite worthy data on the running of a pot ash kiln, but there seems to be a consensus that they were designed and
operated to burn their fuel slowly. |
This seems like an ideal use for a solar concentrator. For home
use, it's set and forget for a while. The idea might be adaptable for generation of pyrolysis gas and making charcoal from biomass on a light
industrial scale, although burning that charcoal for heat is at odds with potassium extraction.
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