Say we take out a letter and it's folded. Now, you notice it doesn't really want to open very far at all. Now I know the impulse is to immediately take that finger like this and just run it across there and open it up. You don't want to do that. These are fibers that have been bent for a long period of time. By bending those fibers out of their position, you're going to create -- you're going to break those fibers along there. If you break those fibers along this fold, you're eventually going to get tears. So what I'm going to show you how to do is to flatten this with just a little bit of moisture. You can do this with just some simple stuff that you can [use] at home, [get] at Wal Mart. Kmart, drug store or grocery store.
So start with a dishpan. It can be any size -- maybe about an inch of water in the bottom -- make it warm water -- about 100 degrees. Take a little rack -- this is from a dish rack. It's better if it's a little coated and it's not a metal rack. You don't want to cause any rust. Just press that down in there. Because I have a hole in the middle I'll put this other plastic mat on top just to add as a support for the paper. And then I just have a piece of paper so that I'm not laying the letter directly on the plastic. And then I'm going to put the letter in here -- grab -- I like to use a clear piece of plexi or something, or glass as long as the edges aren't real sharp. And I'm just going to leave it -- I'm going to let it sit there.
After it sat in there a while, we can open it up and see. You'll be able to feel if the paper is giving a little more. And maybe you'll find that this fold is giving enough now so that you can fold it open, like this, and work on this other crease. And keep it in there for a little while longer.
