Lye from Rocket Mass Heater ash?

I wasn't sure what forum to ask this in; it kind of straddles a few subjects. I thought those with experience with RMS would be most likely to know. Paul, Erica or Ernie, feel free to move this to a more appropriate area if you wish.

Q: Are the ashes periodically cleaned out of a RMH good for making lye (for soap making)? Or does the cleaner burn clean change the chemical make-up of the ash? Anybody here tried this?

Chris S. : Yes, absolutely, check out the fox fire books, after i sign off here i will be doing a web-search for lye houses or ash houses- you have to use wooden buckets, an enamel bucket works until you get that 1st graze in the glaze ! g'LUCK pyro-maticly yours Allen L.

Lye is made with hardwood ashes, so burn hard woods only between clean outs then take your ash.

Always good to have another use

Laura and Chris : Mea Culpa ; I was at least 90% wrong, In a clean burning highly efficient Rocket Stove the burn is So Clean that the ash
left behind is a mineral or elemental Ash. When you physically examine the ash it should feel as fine as Talcum powder. There may be a
few accretions of potash nodules and a few little micro-lumps of fused glass.

Within the bench itself, you may have some products of incomplete combustion from the individual starting-from-cold-fires, which can consist
of anything/everything! So basically, no there is not going to be much Lye in the remaining combustion byproducts . You got the old school
answer, not the reasoned answer of clear analytical thought. I am sorry for mis-directing you !

For the good of the Craft,Be safe, keep warm PYRO - Logically Big AL

Chris, that's a darn good question! Good job making that connection, I'll be interested to see what the Wisners have to say.

Thank you everyone for your responses. Once I get enough ash I might as well give it a shot! Nothing to lose but my pride.
I don't hold high hopes, between what Allen says, and the fact that we don't have much in the way of hardwood up here in the Yukon, I doubt the lye will have much strength to it... but maybe I'll be able to find some other use.

any updates on trying this? Erica and Ernie?

Also, are there ways to capture that potassium? where does it go? what off-gassing does come from a rocket stove burn?

Lots of different compounds with potassium come out, according to some website about high-temperature wood burns,  https://www.vttresearch.com/sites/default/files/pdf/publications/2000/P414.pdf.  I couldn't cut and paste it so there's an image.

I don't fully understand how it can be getting vaporized.  Lye's boiling point is:

Boiling point: 2,421°F (1,327°C)

What form is it in when it's in the wood originally?