diff --git a/try_flags.sh b/try_flags.sh
new file mode 100755
index 000000000..4957b0123
--- /dev/null
+++ b/try_flags.sh
@@ -0,0 +1,6 @@
+#!/bin/bash
+
+for f in third_party/waved-flags/svg/*.svg; do
+  log=/tmp/$(basename $f).picosvg.log
+  picosvg $f 2>&1 > $log || echo "ERROR, see $log"
+done
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/unstyle_flags.py b/unstyle_flags.py
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..5e501534a
--- /dev/null
+++ b/unstyle_flags.py
@@ -0,0 +1,70 @@
+#!/usr/bin/env python3
+# Copyright 2020 Google, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
+#
+# Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License");
+# you may not use this file except in compliance with the License.
+# You may obtain a copy of the License at
+#
+#     http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
+#
+# Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software
+# distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS,
+# WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied.
+# See the License for the specific language governing permissions and
+# limitations under the License.
+
+"""Exploratory over-simplified tool for application of the specific form
+of style that seems to exist in the flag svgs.
+"""
+
+
+from lxml import etree
+import os
+from pathlib import Path
+import re
+
+
+_SVGNS = {"svg": 'http://www.w3.org/2000/svg'}
+# specific to the narrow usage of style in flag svgs
+_STYLE_RE = re.compile(r"[.](\w+)\{([^}]+)\}$")
+
+
+def main():
+  for file in Path("third_party/waved-flags/svg").glob("emoji_u*.svg"):
+    print(file)
+    tree = etree.parse(str(file))
+    root = tree.getroot()
+    style_els = root.xpath("//svg:style", namespaces=_SVGNS)
+    if not style_els:
+      print("skip", file)
+      continue
+    if len(style_els) > 1:
+      print("ERROR multiple style elements", file)
+      continue
+
+    style = style_els[0]
+    style.getparent().remove(style)
+
+    for style_line in style.text.split("\n"):
+      style_line = style_line.strip()
+      if not style_line:
+        continue
+      match = _STYLE_RE.match(style_line)
+      assert match, f"Unsupported line '{style_line}' in {file}"
+      class_name = match.group(1).strip()
+      styles = {s.strip() for s in match.group(2).split(";") if s.strip()}
+
+      styled_els = root.xpath(f"//svg:*[@class='{class_name}']", namespaces=_SVGNS)
+      for style in sorted(styles):
+        name, value = (v.strip() for v in style.split(":"))
+        for el in styled_els:
+          el.attrib[name] = value
+      for el in styled_els:
+        assert el.attrib["class"] == class_name
+        del el.attrib["class"]
+
+      etree.ElementTree(root).write(str(file), pretty_print=True)
+
+
+if __name__ == '__main__':
+  main()