Home tanning question about air drying

[rasorbackq]

 Seems to be alot of different info here .  I normally salt  2 days then wash the hide if its really dirty. Some people say to air dry  then rehydrate  before pickling.   They say the drying stage locks in the hair.  It does until the hide is rehydatrated,  correct?

 Can I go from  washed salted hide straight into the pickle??

[coonhollow]

salt twice, hang for at least 3 days, rehydrate solution, then to pickle..

[rasorbackq]

 Why???

[muscle20]

rasorbackq:       
   1) Salted skin is a skin that has been salted, the moisture is removed by the salt, you can salt once, twice , three  times, if you salt more than once you are removing the moisture from the saturated salt from the first salting drying the skin , I have only found to do a second salting on thick heavy skins like bison,moose,steer to get rid of the moisture quicker along with thinning as these mammals have very thick hides, I have found it only necessary to salt deer size skins and thinner (one good salting),  a salted skin has got to be hydrated before going into the pickle if all the moisture has been removed , example a few days salted to a year or more, , if a skin has only been salted for 12 to 24 hours and is not dry you can just add it to the pickle and the pickle will penetrate, you will gain with experience. If you wish you can simply flesh your skin and not salt it and put the skin directly into your pickle,as the acid pickle is what is doing the work for you, if you have a iffy skin I would recommend salting it first for a few days then into the pickle , as the salt will work quicker to rid the moisture from the skin stopping bacteria action then cross your fingers and hope for the best in the pickle. Yes you can salt, wash and if the skin is hydrated enough into the pickle ,(it is best a skin be hydrated after salting as though you just removed the skin from the mammal before going into the pickle for constancy) .

[rasorbackq]

 Thanks Muscle 20  I tend to salt for 2 days and the hide is no where near dry .  It is now that I wash me bears as they are very dirty  and I try to control the ph fluctuation to rid the blood.
  If  skin is iffe does drying in hard to lock in the hair  assist so the hair is less to slip during pickle and tanning or during rehydration?

[muscle20]

    If you think a skin is iffy by smell or you notice more hair being shed than the normal or you know the history of the mammal, example being shown off for a few days without the skin being removed in warm weather, salt the skin as soon as possible, the bacteria will attack the hair follicles first when enough decomposition has occurred you will have hair slippage, by salting the skin you are removing moisture that bacteria needs to survive, there for retarding the action that has taken place, but if the bacteria has advanced before the removal of moisture you still will have hair slippage in the areas effected, during hydration ,washing, pickle,degreasing, tanning, and finishing, field care is most important, getting the skin off the mammal ,cooling the skin, salting or freezing slows down or stops decomposition whether it be a mammal ,bird, or what ever. The answer to your question is no there is no locking of the hairs in advanced bacteria action has taken place.

[nts2010]

In my opinion I wouldnt totally dry a questionable hide as it HAS to be rehydrated before going into the pickle and the dryer it is the longer it will take , the longer time in the rehydration bath the more time the bacteria has to grow.
                         cheers Peter

[cyclone]

Why???

Because..

http://www.taxidermy.net/forum/index.php/topic,226650.0.html

http://www.taxidermy.net/forum/index.php/topic,190795.0.html

http://www.taxidermy.net/forum/index.php/topic,107900.0.html


and at least 3 more pages from a proper search...