how to fix water damaged paper?

[andrew ferguson]

is there any way to smoothen out paper that has had a bit of water damage and has become wrinkled and puckered a bit as a result? I was thinking of running over it with an iron set on low, with a piece of cloth in between the iron and the paper but thought i'd ask here before trying it.


Any advice appreciated.

[cgutzmer]

Sorry to hear that.... If that fails, try making it a bit moist again then ironing it out again. I dunno though. I have never done it!
Chris

[jagolden]

I'd suggest using a damp cloth under the iron.

I needed a $50 bill for gift card, could get a fresh one from the bank so I took the best one they could give me and ironed it.
Looked brand-spankin new!

[nebeltex]

while a "bill" can certainly seem paper, american currency is mostly linen. the ink never really dries (so they say, rub a bill on paper, some ink will transfer). that brings me to a second point. try it on an piece of similar paper with the same ink (if possible). you should be o.k. on a low setting, but you could "lift" ink to the cloth between.....

[eric_son]

Sometimes, moisture will also 'expand' the paper a bit. So, even if you iron it out and get rid of most of the wrinkles, the paper might never revert to its original flat state.

[Lex]

Most paper has their fibres aligned in the long direction, and their lengths might change with moisture. So even if the model is ironed out, I'd still be expecting some misfitting parts from this anisotropic expansion... (In fact the heat of ironing usually makes things worse)

[Stev0]

I had softcover books get saturated from rain one time. Without opening them or disturbing them, I took each and sandwiched the book between 2 larger sized planks and nailed the planks together VERY tightly. I hung them up and not only did it dry but any warpage that would have occurred from being wet never happened.

I don't know why the book and others like it did not turn into a block of solid goo.

That was about 15+ years ago and I still have the books in perfect condition.

The method above only works with newly wet items, however ironing may be a good idea for wrinkled items as long as you apply some steam to the pages. Pulpy paper may not work well with steam because it has a propensity to deform.