Bought a pack of pre-stretched canvases and every single one has a dent I can't size out
Six canvases. Six. I thought I was saving time, buying them already stretched by people who supposedly know what they're doing. Every single one has a little depression right in the middle, like someone pressed a fist into it before the glue dried. I sized them anyway, hoping it would tighten up. It didn't. Now I've got to either strip them and re-stretch myself or paint around a soft spot for the next three months.
I know the answer is "do it yourself." I do. But sometimes you just want to buy a thing and have it be the thing you bought, non? I'm too old to be surprised by this and yet here I am, surprised.
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I stopped buying pre-stretched anything about fifteen years ago for exactly this kind of reason. Not because I'm a purist, I'm not, but because the disappointment is somehow worse than if I'd done it myself and made my own mistake. At least then it's mine.
Here's what I'd do with those: flip them over, wet the back of the dent area with a spray bottle, let it dry in the sun. Sometimes the fibres pull tight again. Sometimes they don't and you're back where you started, but it's worth an afternoon before you go to war with the staples.
The disappointment being worse, yes, that's exactly it. I'd rather make my own mistake and own it than pay someone else to make one for me.
I'll try the wet-back trick. Might save one or two. But I'm already measuring linen for stretching myself, so we'll see how patient I actually am this week.