How can I separate sand from clay from a particular sample

of soil?
Depending on the size of the soil sample.. you need a container for the soil and water, a second
container. two squares of a finely woven yet strong cloth (bed-sheets, muslin, Sari cloth, silk …),
some large rubber bands or ropes (to tie the cloth, which will serve as a filter, around the second
container) and a couple of flat basins that you will use as drip-basins.

The container sizes are variable, depending on the size of the sample. You want something that
lets your soil fit in about a quarter of the air space. Ready ?

On the side this is not an exact process, be prepared to tweak it per your sample size and the
nature of your soil. Okay Begin

1. Put the soil into a container, as advised by the other quorans. Add water. Aim
for about a quarter of the volume as soil/sediment etc, and almost three quarters
water, with a bit of airspace. Let the container sit for an hour or two for the soil
to absorb as much water as possible, which will soften it.
2. Next, agitate it. If you have a small sample that fits in a bottle shake the heck
out of it. Vigorously. Shake the heck out of it. Take out your frustrations, at
least as far as you safely can…. Shake until all of the soil is suspended in the
water and you have a syrupy mud like slurry. If it’s a large container then you
will need a paddle or stirrer like instrument to agitate it.
3. Let it sit. Within a couple of minutes the heaviest particles would have readily
separated, with finer layers at the top. Give it maybe another 2- 3 minutes.
4. Take your prepped fine-weave cloth (muslin, bedsheets, silk, old saris..
which have very fine weaves indeed). Fold it over twice or thrice (depending
on how . Fit it around a bucket or container. Push down so there is a depression
in the middle, secure it around the perimeter of the container with a rope,
rubber bands or straps, etc depending on the size. It’s your filter.
5. Carefully pour the muddy brown water that remains from the agitated soil
and water slurry over the cloth tied around the bucket- this water contains
suspended clay particles which, being fine, will take a long time to settle. The
cloth is a filter, since you have it doubled or tripled over (depending on the
fineness or coarseness of the weave) it will filter particles smaller than the
weave, leaving them trapped like a slime on the surface of the cloth. Keep the
water that filters out. You see, in this method you won’t let everything settle,
just the heaviest/coarsest particles first. You want to pour the water carefully,
making sure that you don’t carry much of the sediment into the filter cloth. Let
it drain. What’s left is mostly clay with finer silt that you will filter out again.
6. Go back to the original bottle. Repeat process. Add water, shake the heck
out of it. Let the heavier particles settle for a couple of minutes. Re-pour the
leftover water on that filter cloth and let it dribbled down below. You will want
to do this until after the heavy particles settle the water that remains is
relatively clear. You should be left with pure silt, sand, heavy organic solids -
non clay stuff - in the original container.
 7. Now go to the second container, which you will let slowly drip and drain for a
day. It may take that long. Tie up the wet cloth with the brown clay slime along
the bottom, just tie it up like a sack, go hang it up somewhere on top of a basin
to continue to drip.
8. Drain the brownish water left over in the second container. Now go take
another segment of finely woven cloth, fold it over 4 times over another bucket.
Pour that remaining water in it, let it drain. Do with that cloth the same as with
the first. Hang it up somewhere to slowly drip over another basin.
9. Bingo your clay is separated in these cloth bundles you used as filters. The
sand and silt are in another container. If you wanted to continue to refine the
clay you could, using finer cloth with tighter weaves. Because some fine silt
will have ended up in the filtered clay. You could go completely OCD and
filter, strain, etc. until you have things nicely separated.
10. A good hack, after you shake things up first pour it through a fine metal sieve to
get the very large sand particles and tiny pebbles. Rinse it with water to make
sure all silt and clay are washed off. THEN agitate it in a bottle/container as in
step one, and filter it out.
Get creative, there are numerous ways you can refine or adapt this method depending on the size
of your sample.

Reference:
https://www.quora.com/How-can-I-separate-sand-from-clay-from-a-particular-sample-of-soil