I agree with Karen, it's a lot less hassle. And I have noticed a lot of nitre this year for whatever reason, though I suspect the two bush maples may have a role in it. That's why I use coffee filters, they're disposable. They do a great job but once they clog up, I get the next filter and funnel set up and ready under the clogged one. Then I use a knife to poke out the bottom of the clogged filter so yes, it will dump some nitre into the new filter setup...but a lot of nitre will stay behind in the pleats of the clogged one.

But yeah...a year or two ago I had a batch, thankfully a small one, that was just so clogged with nitre it was impossible to do anything with. I think I eventually consigned it to my salvage jar, where I put the rogue leftovers and hopeless batches, and played around with it using distilled water a bit later in the year and was able to wrestle a decent, nitre-free batch at long last.