Peterson Stain??

[MikeDennison]

Dunno if this will be relevant, but my Sav Bing was dip stained, and I also almost parted with it for the same reason. Each time I smoked it, it tasted like my grandad's workshop smelled: varnish, linseed, etc. Horrible! [mention]Fr_Tom[/mention] advised me to smoke it like the dickens, and I did. It took a while, but now it's a splendid smoker with none of that horrible stain taste. May be different with Pete's, though.

Not too long after I hired on here I came to the board with basically the same problem, except that my pipe was an Italian made that I had bought off the wall at the Gatlin-Burlier. I described the taste as simply being sour. I was advised to ream it out to bare wood if I could, coat the bowl in honey and by Fr_Tom to smoke Burley tobaccos in it. I did and after about 10 bowls of PA & CH it began to turn itself around. It's now a decent smoking pipe without a funky taste. I did not notice a bad taste out of my Peterson when it was new.

I seem to remember that pipe giving you the problem, sir! Glad that you were finally able to get it all straightened out and smokeable.

[MikeDennison]

Thanks guys. I really appreciate the time and effort you guys put into explaining and advising a somewhat newbie like me

Yer just givin' a lotta the old timers the excuse to talk about what they like most!

[Houtenziel]

Is that even something you might do on a pipe that's has been smoked 4 to 6 times?

Yeah, I do it to both my new and new to me estate pipes after I give them a ream. No problems with a pipe that has been smoked. The goal is to cover up the stuff in the bowl with a coating of carbonized sugars.
For the Pete you have, I would suggest that you clean the well of the pipe(in the shank) out as well as you possibly can with some q-tips and isopropyl alcohol. I suggest using isopropyl over vodka merely because it is very strong and will do a good job stripping the stain out. You can use everclear too if you have that available. In my experience, almost all the lingering chemical taste that hangs around for ages is in the shank, and since that doesn't get purged with fire you have to manually clean that stuff out(or cover it up with tar from smoking).
For ebonite/vulcanite stems, the only way you are going to lessen the outside smell of rubber is with wax. Carnauba on a buffer, or Renaissance / Paragon wax. The other thing I always do after stem restores, which sound strange to some, is coat a pipe cleaner in regular toothpaste and vigorously scrub the airway in the stem. We focus a lot on the outside after doing dips, sanding, etc.. but we forget that the inside airway is probably oxidized too, and the toothpaste does a good job of polishing that out and lessening the funky rubber odor.

Carnauba wax, as in the car polishing Carnauba wax?

Well it's the main component of car wax, but car waxes usually contain a bunch of other things like solvents that you don't want on your stem. For a pipe stem, you'd use pure carnauba applied with a buffing wheel. I use 4" linen buffing wheels attached to a drill (spinning at about 900RPM) to do my buffing/waxing. It's not as fast as a bench buffer, but it is a lot more forgiving and most importantly inexpensive. Your other option(and probably the most popular amongst DIYers) is to use Paragon wax:
https://www.finepipes.com/accessories/p ... -pipe-1-oz
No tools required. I rub mine on with my finger and then it sits for a few minutes and then buffs off with a microfiber cloth. For stems, this is what I usually use because it is easy and there is no risk of rounding off the button or removing nomenclature like there is with a buffing wheel.

[Surlywill]

Just to stir the pot the bowl coating I use is sour cream and activated charcoal. I’ve used it on cleaned estate pipes and new pipes.. Really speeds up the break in and has no taste. Many of the YouTube restorers swear by it, and I am a convert.

[Ronv69]

Is that even something you might do on a pipe that's has been smoked 4 to 6 times?

Yeah, I do it to both my new and new to me estate pipes after I give them a ream. No problems with a pipe that has been smoked. The goal is to cover up the stuff in the bowl with a coating of carbonized sugars.
For the Pete you have, I would suggest that you clean the well of the pipe(in the shank) out as well as you possibly can with some q-tips and isopropyl alcohol. I suggest using isopropyl over vodka merely because it is very strong and will do a good job stripping the stain out. You can use everclear too if you have that available. In my experience, almost all the lingering chemical taste that hangs around for ages is in the shank, and since that doesn't get purged with fire you have to manually clean that stuff out(or cover it up with tar from smoking).
For ebonite/vulcanite stems, the only way you are going to lessen the outside smell of rubber is with wax. Carnauba on a buffer, or Renaissance / Paragon wax. The other thing I always do after stem restores, which sound strange to some, is coat a pipe cleaner in regular toothpaste and vigorously scrub the airway in the stem. We focus a lot on the outside after doing dips, sanding, etc.. but we forget that the inside airway is probably oxidized too, and the toothpaste does a good job of polishing that out and lessening the funky rubber odor.

Carnauba wax, as in the car polishing Carnauba wax?

No! Pure carnuba. Car wax has solvents in it that will ruin a briar pipe or any stem.
There are easier waxes to apply that are made for pipes. Check out the pipe cleaning supplies at Smoking Pipes.