Once vanes become wrinkled, is there a way to get them straight again or are they that way forever?

If there is a way to unwrinkle them, I don't know what it is...perhaps slightly warming them with a hair dryer?

Sometimes the hair dryer trick works. Sometimes it doesn't. I would suggest, however, that you find the cause of the wrinkle and if it's caused by something other thana WB rest, fix it.

I hold mine over the steam coming out of a boiling kettle, just like you would for damaged feathers. You'll see them get worse at first but then start to straighten out. Some vanes you have to put on a flat surface as they cool if they're wrinkled real bad. Just be careful not to melt them or scald yourself!

You're really better off just refletching the arrow.
However that's a sign of some serious friction and you would want to reduce this as much as you can.

The hairdryer works well as long as you do it before they get too bad. If they are severely wrinkled the hairdryer won't work. That steam trick seems like a good idea.

Next time I'm going to try to use a clothes iron. I figure you can put the iron on steam, lay the vane on an ironing board, cover it with a cloth, and steam out the wrinkles. I'll let you know if it works!

I do the same thing.

I always get wrinkled cock vanes on my fletchings. I shoot an NAP Quiktune 1000 out of my Reflex Highlander. It's just the way it is.... It's real finicky....

Before you start saying, "yeah but"... Trust me. I'm shooting bullseyes at 30 yards. My centershot is setup and the tension on the Quiktune 1000 is set just enough to support the Beman ICS Hunter 340 and 100gr tip.

100gr field tips and 100gr Magnus Stingers and Buzzcuts are all flying dead on with each other too.

BUT... for some reason, I am getting just a hair of cock vane fletching contact from the NAP Quiktune 1000. So I did the "lipstick trick" and saw exactly what was happening....

The arrow immediately starts rotating upon release and when I have the cock vane centered in the slot of the NAP Quiktune, it will gently touch the inside of the slot/cutout of the Quiktune 1000 when it passes through the rest. So..... after playing around with it, I ever-so-slightly rotated my nocks so that the cock vane enters the Quiktune's slot/cutout near the side, and passes through in the center.

I know... I know...A drop-away would solve all this fooling around with a prong rest.

As far as wrinkled vanes.... A hairdryer will work, but not great. The best solution is to hold the wrinkled vane over steam from a tea kettle. It steams the wrinkled vane and gets it all soaked in boiling hot steam. Then you just let it rest on a table (cock vane down/on its side) and let it cool. It will perfectly straighten out like brand new! [8D]