Floating hide in pickle..whats safe to use?

Concrete is worse. It contains lime. Let the hide float. Stir it occasionally to keep it "wet".

 

Use air, nothing else. Pickles are acid, concrete bricks are highly basic..
You'll have bricks covered with hair and a hide with no hair.

Let them float skin side down, stir daily and check pH often.

 

I use plastic 2 liter bottles filled with water to hold my capes down. Never had a problem.

 

I use nothing, have for decades and let them float. Never had a problem.

 

Gallon anti freeze jugs with water in them.

 

I don't use anything . Just let them float , stir at least 2 -3 times a day , make sure ph is right never have had a problem

 

I use to use jugs of water to hold them down, now I just let them float and stir them 2 to 3 times a day. No difference what so ever.

 

Does NOT have to be submerged. Hair up, skin down, but stir it occasionally to insure the hair side is wetted with the acid occasionally. Can you imagine how many milk jugs it would take a professional tannery to insure they were submerged?

 

I agree with George! Every morning at Modern Fur Dressing, Roger Smith simply walked in, and stirred his pickled skins using a canoe paddle. It worked! But I did have an opportunity later, to work with a guy who used 5 Gallon pails half filled with water and capped to weigh his skins down while they pickled, and when I arrived, it was the first thing I asked him - please remove those pickling weights! He did - and it didn't make a difference! It had slowed down his whole operation. Every time he needed a skin out of the pickle you had to remove the 5 Gallon pails.

 

We actually do use 5 gallon jugs filled with water on top of a grate to hold them down but I rehydrate 20-30 capes at a time so I lean towards making sure they are submerged. Idahotannery.com and yes we spend a lot of time pulling jugs in and out.