A sticky stem - advice needed!

[T.E.Fox]

All excellent advice gents, and I thank you warmly. I've tried methods various but still to no avail - tried smoking it and smoking it hot to see if there was any luck. Maybe an overnight dose in the freezer and a very careful method of holding the shank is in order. There is no other mars on the pipe besides "Chelsea. Made in France" written upon it. I found one small article about them saying they are a secondary line to a better known manufacturer. I agree with the thoughts of a screw in stem. It wouldn't bother me so much but I can't get a pipe cleaner through it for the life of me, so I'd like to find out what is in it. It gurgles quite bad if the tobacco is anything but bone dry - which is something I'd also like to try and fix. Back to the laboratory for more tests!

[JustTroItIn]

It wouldn't bother me so much but I can't get a pipe cleaner through it for the life of me

This would support the theory that it's a screw in with a stinger. Ideally I think heat would be what you would want here, but I think the vulcanite would get too soft first. If it were me I would probably risk using a bit more elbow grease and accept the chance of possibly breaking it.