Getting wrinkles out of elephant hide

[MichaelBrock]

I just received an order of elephant hide from Kim's Crane that arrived crushed in the box. I failed to purchase the shipping insurance (something to remember for future orders) so I'm stuck with what I received. Does anyone have experience with removing wrinkles from elephant hide? Would ironing work? I guess it is worth a shot as I have nothing to lose.

[dinogami]

I don't know if this would work, but it's a thought: the sizing in elephant hide expands the paper when wet, so perhaps tape (using painter's tape or something that could be removed from the paper) to tack one end down to a surface (e.g., glass), sponge the paper with a damp (not heavy or dripping) sponge to wet the sizing, let the paper expand, then stretch the paper slightly until taut and tack down the other end (and possibly the sides, too)...? You'll have to sacrifice and not wet the edges where the tape is, but should still be able to get a good-sized square (or whatever shape) out of it. Probably not as fast as ironing, so if ironing works fine, then never mind!

[steingar]

Wet and iron with an iron on a very low setting. Haven't tried it myself but it should work, at least in theory...

[MichaelBrock]

They are pretty big sheets of paper. I'll try ironing on one section and if that doesn't work I'll try the re-sizing. I guess I could also resign myself to smaller pieces of paper and cut out the middle crinkled section.

Edited to add: thanks for the replies!