Do I rehydrate before pickling?

I have 2 hides that are salt-dried. One has been dried for 2 years, one for 2 weeeks. I want to start the pickling process and I figured I would rinse in cold water first, to soften and remove the excess salt before placing in the pickling solution. Is this correct? I know I need to watch the salt levels and figured if I didn't rinse first it would go too high.

Thanks for the help,

Todd

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Salt is not the problem, it stops acid swelling.

Many people will relax a hide that is salted and hard first, before placing in the pickle. I dont, I place the salted dried hide directly in the pickle, they seem to work better and have less slip problems for me this way.

Rising PH is the problem. Start with it down at 1.0 and check to keep it less than 2.0 during relaxing and shaving process.

ditto

Todd, I usually justrinse my salt dried skins off and than place them in my pickle,I then go through the thinning and tanning process, I use Liqua-Tan, then I will let the tanned hide air dry and I will rehydrate it and mount at a later date and I dont have any problems getting all the stretch back.

Thanks

Thanks for all the help!

Todd