How to smooth paper and what you need for this

Is it possible to iron paper with an iron?

An iron will help get rid of wrinkles. The device will cope with large defects and even out the paper, but it is not able to remove small irregularities. Preliminarily test the iron on an inconspicuous area of the leaf. If the result is positive, the procedure begins.

Step by step steps:

The paper is smoothed out with your hands and placed under a dry cotton cloth.
The device is connected to the network. The temperature should be low. High temperatures give the paper a yellowish tint that cannot be removed.
After heating, the sole is applied to the fabric and begin to iron over the surface. You can iron the paper in 1-1.5 minutes.
Check the sheet. If dents remain, increase the temperature.

The fabric is thick and rough. A towel or sheet will do.

There is a high risk of ruining the paper. When an important document gets jammed, hand it over to specialists.

Professional methods

If a document is of particular importance to you, then it is better to play it safe and immediately turn to professionals. The workshops have special equipment with which you can quickly restore paper.

To level the sheet, contact restorers at specialized centers. They will restore paper of any quality for you. After all, craftsmen often deal with historical artifacts, so this will not be a problem for them.

Advice: you can find people in such professions by visiting a museum, restoration workshop, library, or using the Internet.

Now you know how to smooth out paper that seems beyond repair. We hope that our tips will help you deal with this problem. Store your valuable documents in files and folders for decades, protected from mechanical stress, water and ultraviolet rays, so you don’t have to think about how to restore their neat appearance. Good luck!

Using a heavy load

Heaviness smooths out wrinkles. The cargo is:

3-4 copies of bulky and heavy books;
massive equipment, interior items, furniture;
Sports Equipment;
flat metal parts.

After choosing the cargo, it is important to consider the nuances:

To obtain the result, the leaf is moistened. A damp cloth, rag or fine spray will do.
Moisten the back of the paper. There should be no paint, ink, pencil, or chalk on it.
The napkin is used as a blotter and placed under the paper.
Slightly moistened paper is placed under a weight and left to straighten for a day.

If the result is not satisfactory, the severity is left for the next 24-48 hours. The procedure will straighten severe creases.

A document with inscriptions and drawings printed on it must not be wetted. Allowed to straighten dry.

Other methods using improvised means

If you don’t have an iron, steam generator or printer, you can straighten a sheet of paper using improvised means. This could be an iron mug, a damp towel, a home mattress, or a lamp. If used correctly, you can smooth out the paper sheet using a curling iron or hair curling iron.

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Hot iron mug

Metal objects work well to straighten crumpled paper. If you heat them up, the effect will be even better. It is enough to fill a clean steel or enamel mug with boiling water and place it on the wrinkled area of the sheet. It is recommended to keep the container on it until the water cools completely.

Wet towel

If you moisten the paper a little, it can smooth out well. However, you should not cover it with a towel that is too wet. It is enough to use a slightly dried cotton product. The towel must be placed on a paper sheet and left for an hour or a little more.

Spray

This method is in many ways identical to the previous option with a wet towel. If you apply a little water to the sheet through a spray bottle, it will smooth it out quite nicely as it evaporates. It is important not to apply too much water to the paper, as the material may be damaged and the writing on it may smudge. It is recommended to spray water only on heavily wrinkled areas of the leaf and wait until they dry completely.

Mattress

You can straighten the paper well using a mattress. It is necessary to place the crumpled sheet under it and leave it there overnight. Under strong pressure, the material will smooth out overnight. The mattress itself should press the paper sheet tightly. Otherwise, there will be no proper smoothing effect.

To prevent the paper sheet from getting dirty from the old mattress, it is recommended to put it in a document file.

Wet hand

This option is similar in effect to the method using a damp towel and spray. Only the human hand acts as a straightener. You need to wet your palm a little and apply it to the crumpled piece of paper.

Do not wet your hand too much. Excess moisture will cause the sheet to become very wet and may tear. Then an important document will be irretrievably damaged. It is recommended to lightly spray your palm with a spray bottle and apply it only to heavily wrinkled areas of the document. It is necessary to hold your hand for a while so that the paper is better saturated. After this, it is important to wait until the moisture from the surface of the paper has completely evaporated.

red-hot lamp

Using this method, you can straighten only a small piece of paper or a separate section of it. A hot lamp is not suitable for smoothing large sheets. This method is dangerous because it can cause a fire.

It is recommended to bring the crumpled piece of paper to the lamp and hold it over it for up to 20 seconds. It is important not to place the leaf too close to the light bulb. Due to the high temperature, the paper will instantly ignite and the document will be lost. Also, if you hold a sheet over a light bulb for a long time, a yellow or black spot will appear on it. It is necessary to keep the crumpled piece of paper at a distance of at least 10 cm from the hot light bulb.

Stretching

This method has several variations:

You can first spray a small amount of water on a paper sheet and carefully begin to smooth it tightly from the middle to the edges. The sheet itself should not be completely wet. It should be slightly moist. Otherwise, the document may be torn, since wet paper tears at the slightest touch.
You can straighten a piece of paper using a heavy object. It is necessary to press it firmly against the document and begin to rub it vigorously and under pressure from the middle to the edges.
You can stretch the crumpled paper sheet with your hands. You need to place it between your palms and start rubbing it with pressure. You can also place the document on the table and rub it with your palm from the center to the edges.

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Stretching the paper into a tube also allows you to remove some wrinkles from it. It is enough to roll the leaf into a tube and start stretching it from the inside from the center to the edges. You can pinch the document from below with the thumbs of both hands and begin to pull the sheet from the center to the sides, gradually moving upward. You can do this procedure with paper lying on the table. It is enough to simply stretch it along the entire perimeter from the center to the side edges.

Using a hair curler

If you hold the sheet in heated tongs and pass it through them, it will smooth out well. Moreover, in this way you can get rid of even deep bends and bruises.

Smoothing a document with tongs carries the risk of damaging it. Do not heat the device too much. This way you can burn the paper too much and it will eventually catch fire. It is recommended to straighten crumpled leaves with slightly heated tongs. It is better to carry out the procedure at the moment when the device is just starting to heat up. It is important to quickly pass the crumpled leaf through the tongs. If you do this slowly, there is a high chance that the paper will scorch or catch fire.

The use of tongs to straighten crumpled sheets of paper should be resorted to only in special cases when other options have not given the desired result. The device heats up to high temperatures, which is detrimental to paper documents.

Curling iron

The principle of smoothing wrinkled paper documents with a curling iron is similar to the option of using tongs. In this case, a curling iron is the more preferable method. Since the tongs have a cylindrical shape, paper can be damaged when clamping it. The sheet may become stuck or deformed in the tongs.

The curling iron has both smooth surfaces. It is good to squeeze crumpled paper sheets between them. You can also use a curling iron to precisely align the desired parts of the document, where there are especially many wrinkles and folds. But this method also risks damaging the leaf. A very hot curling iron can singe it just as much as curling irons. Therefore, it is recommended not to press the paper excessively inside the curling iron. It is important to use the device only at low temperatures. It is recommended to smooth out wrinkled sheets with a curling iron only when it begins to heat up.

This method of straightening crumpled paper should only be used as a last resort. Curling irons operate at high temperatures, from which any paper document can instantly ignite spontaneously.

How to smooth cardboard

Bulk cardboard sheets are placed under heavy flat objects. Cardboard has a rough structure, so you don’t have to worry about damaging it by ironing it.

A material is placed between the iron and cardboard that will absorb some of the heat. Carefully iron the surface without heating individual areas. It is important to take care of fire safety.

The heat will remove creases and unevenness, but do not overheat the iron.

Professional ways to straighten paper

If a document is of high value, then it is better not to tempt fate, but to enlist the support of professionals. For example, restorers and archivists who are engaged in the restoration of not only documents, but also old manuscripts and valuable paintings will help you straighten a sheet of paper.

Important! You can find a good professional in his field in a special workshop, library or museum.

Drying or humidifying

Water can not only restore paper, but also completely ruin it, so it is better to check its effect on a draft. The professionals themselves use a more dangerous method - the Horton humidifier. To do this, the paper is rolled into a tube and placed in a container, which is placed in a closed flask with water. The entire system is sealed with a lid.

Experts do not recommend using this method at home, as its consequences can be disastrous. A professional will treat the paper with an anti-fungal agent and restore its original appearance. You also need to be careful when drying documents, because the paper can ripple, shrink and become damaged.

How to straighten crumpled Whatman paper

Smoothing whatman paper with a press takes longer, but the method is the safest.

A sheet of whatman paper is sprayed with water from a spray bottle. The liquid will bind the paper fibers together like glue. It will soften and become pliable. Use boiled water, technical water will ruin whatman paper.
Inscriptions, seals, stamps, drawings will become wet when exposed to drops. The sheet is moistened from the clean side.
The paper is fixed between layers of absorbent fabric,
“Layers” are fixed under a heavy stack of magazines and books.
They wait 2-3 days without looking in or removing the load.
They remove the press and evaluate the result.
Allow the Whatman paper to dry.

Align the paper under the press

This method does not have a complex scientific approach, although it is possible to delve into the laws of physics, but this is of no use now. The whole principle of this method comes down to the fact that, under the weight of the load, the sheet of paper is gradually leveled. The press can be:

Furniture.
Technique.
Sports equipment.
Books, etc.

In this case, the procedure is as follows:

Lightly moisten a sheet of paper with clean water; it will soften the surface, allowing the wrinkled areas to be better leveled. It is best to do this using a spray bottle, spraying the paper at a distance of 0.4 meters. The second option is to wipe the sheet with a slightly damp sponge.

Important! To moisturize, you must use distilled water, since regular tap water contains many impurities.

You need to be very careful when treating the sheet with water, because it can wash out the paint, so it’s better to wet the paper on the back side.
The next step is to carefully align the sheet with your hands. After this, it should be placed between absorbent fabrics or paper napkins.
Now the paper along with the absorbent material can be covered with a press and wait 10-12 hours.
Check the condition of the sheet; if it is wrinkled or is still damp, then replace the napkins and wait a little longer. The maximum leveling time is 4 days.

Important! Of course, you can also put dry paper under the press, thanks to which it will level out in a couple of hours, but most of the dents will remain, although they will be less noticeable.

Straightening wrapping paper

Wrapping paper is used to decorate gifts, so it should be beautiful, smooth and shiny. Creases and jams are unacceptable.

Ways to correct the situation:

The gift paper is placed face down on a flat surface.
Place a flat, dry sheet or clean cotton napkin on top.
Pass the iron on a delicate setting over the fabric, without stopping in one place.
After the procedure, do not take it out immediately, leave it to cool. If you take out a hot sheet, it will “pull off.” Damaged paper cannot be corrected.

The method is suitable for both craft packaging and glassine. Do not use water during the procedure, this will ruin the paper. It will roll into lumps or become more wrinkled.

Leveling the material on the edge of a flat surface will quickly help you deal with the problem: table, window sill, cabinet. A copy of the document is first made so that it can be restored if the result is negative.

How to dry and level books

Before drying and straightening a wet book, remove moisture from the pages using a white towel or napkin and separate the pages. Place the book half-open and place blotting paper between the sheets.

Leave in a well-ventilated area, you can turn on the fan. Monitor drying and, if necessary, carefully separate stuck pages.

You can also use the extreme method of drying the book in the refrigerator. To do this, remove as much moisture as possible from the pages using a towel, napkin and blotters. Then place the book in a ziplock bag and seal.

There should be air left in the bag. Place the book in the freezer and leave for one to two weeks. By the way, you can also stretch your shoes using a freezer. For more information on what to do if your shoes are too small or too tight, see here.

Do not dry sheets and books on a radiator or under the influence of electrical appliances or direct sunlight! Otherwise, the image will fade, the ink will fade, the paper will turn yellow, and the sheets will become wavy. To prevent the paper from getting wet or wrinkled, store documents in special files and folders, and books on shelves in the closet.

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