Separating the Ash Dump products

[Ridgeway Forge Studio]

I seem to recall years ago reading about a way to separate the clinker, ash, spent fuel from and stray pieces of coal and coke that drop down the ash dump-

for the life of me I cannot find the thread, so I am forced to ask the question again. 
is it possible to scoop the contents of my ash dump bucket into a large bin of water and recover any coke that fell down before burning? 
if I recall, the method was that coke floats and clinker and ash sink, so it provides a way to sort the ash dump and save the good bits.

 

can anyone confirm or deny what I think I remember?

[Glenn]

Put the ash from the forge in a 5 gallon bucket of water.  Stir so the heavier material can separate and sink to the bottom.  The fuel will not float but will rise to the top of the stack and can be collected and removed. If you stir slowly, you can grab the fuel by hand as it moves about just before it settles down.  You can process about 3 gallons of material at a time and the process goes rather quickly.

[anvil]

Do it if you are desperate for fuel, but it remains pretty dirty makes it hard to get a clean finish and to make a forgeweld. 

[Ridgeway Forge Studio]

That’s what I thought I remembered, glad to have it confirmed. I have an old whirlwind firepot that has a fairly large grate and a stuck clinker breaker- thankfully my coal barely makes clinker- just some of the good coke inevitably makes it’s way down the chute and I’d very much like to recover it. Fuel is finally more expensive than time, so i would rather get my moneys worth!

[Michael]

I have a screened bucket under the ash dump on my forge. Expanded metal screen was available, hardware cloth would be better, would let less coke through. The screen has a raised lip to the coke doesn't fall off, and lets the ash through to the bucket. There's still enough burnable fuel in the ash that when annealing in the ash bucket, I get some slight smoke rising. The coke ontop of the screen gets dumped back into the fire.