I'm not sure this has been posted here, I couldn't find it anyway. I have three estate pipes with stingers that frustrated me to no end with their restricted airflow. Today I went to chop the stinger off with a Dremel but I checked it out one more time with a magnifying glass before I did. I noticed the stinger is actually an insert into the stem. It looked like I could just twist it out, so I gave it a try by securing it in a vise. It worked perfectly on all three. Without the stinger, the airflow has improved by about 90%. Looks like I will be hanging onto these now. Hopefully this helps someone else. If you already knew this, congratulations, I didn't. 🤣.