I have some pelt that I put up (stretched and dried) that I decided to home tan. Do I need to soak them in water to rehydrate and then salt the hide ? The instructions say hides need to be salted for 24 hrs, scraped, and salt again for 24 hrs before going into a salt water bath. Does salting the hide and air drying do the same thing ? -thanks

If your pelts are air dried,just re-hydrate them in cold water with a little bleach(5 drops) per gallon to act as a bactericide.Too much bleach can cause hairslip,so stick to the drops.Check your skin every couple hours and throw it over the beam and scrape any hard spots so they will take up the water faster.The faster it rehydrates the less chance of hairslip.You want it the same as when it was skinned off the animal before you dried it.
8 hours should be plenty of time for this for a thicker hide like beaver,and a couple to 4hrs for thinner skinned animals.You can de-grease the skin after it is soft in a bucket of warm water and a cap of dishsoap.Use a scrub brush and scrub the soapy water into the flesh side.
Don't soak the skin in the soapy water just wash it in there-rinse it out several times right away after scrubbing to get all the soap out.Now it is ready to go in the pickle solution,and proceed with the tanning.