Yes I find that air dried pelts, especially poorly fleshed and especially beaver (such thick skins!) are a pain to rehydrate, compared to salt dried. I do mine in buckets so I have to literally pull and bend them to speed up rehydration and then they are in there so long that it risks slipping! I like this idea for helping move and stretch the skins to speed up (hands off) rehydration time for those thick skins.