Peterson System 312

[AndrewWiggin]

Bought a Peterson 312, and it's spectacular. I do have a pretty pressing question though:

So I've heard that Peterson basically drops the pipe in varnish and pulls it back out, which is why the pipes take a bit longer to break in. When I was cleaning out my pipe last night, running a pipe cleaner through the intake hole, the cleaner had a reddish stain on it. Should I be concerned that I'm smoking varnish?

That's really the only thing I can think of that would create that red stain.

 

[Commander Quan]

Peterson's are nice pipes, but this is the biggest complainant about them. I wouldn't loose any sleep over it, but if you're worried

Dip a pipe cleaner in some high proof liquor like Everclear or 151 and run it through the pipe and then get some q-tips and dip them in the alcohol and clean the inside of the bowl. This may take a significant number of pipe cleaners and q-tips. The stain makes it a little harder to break in the pipe and but after you smoke it a couple times the stain will burn off and it'll start to build up cake. Just make sure you clean up any alcohol you get on the rim of the pipe because it will mark up that stain too.

 

[AndrewWiggin]

Peterson's are nice pipes, but this is the biggest complainant about them. I wouldn't loose any sleep over it, but if you're worried

Dip a pipe cleaner in some high proof liquor like Everclear or 151 and run it through the pipe and then get some q-tips and dip them in the alcohol and clean the inside of the bowl. This may take a significant number of pipe cleaners and q-tips. The stain makes it a little harder to break in the pipe and but after you smoke it a couple times the stain will burn off and it'll start to build up cake. Just make sure you clean up any alcohol you get on the rim of the pipe because it will mark up that stain too.

I just imagined it probably wouldn't be good to smoke varnish... Anyway at this point I'd hate to clean it out, I think I'm getting a tiny bit of cake on there.

 

[jwhite]

If you were so inclined you could do the S/A treatment out lined in the Brotherhood pipe maintenance thread. It will pull out any remaining stain from the bowl and shank and will not harm any cake that has begun.

BTW it is stain only in the shank and bowl which is a pigment/alcohol solution, not a varnish. Still not particularly tasty but not harmful either.

 

[mparker762]

So I've heard that Peterson basically drops the pipe in varnish and pulls it back out, which is why the pipes take a bit longer to break in. When I was cleaning out my pipe last night, running a pipe cleaner through the intake hole, the cleaner had a reddish stain on it. Should I be concerned that I'm smoking varnish?

I always thought the reason they took longer to break in was because the inside of the bowl is polished so the carbon doesn't want to stick. If you want to speed things up you can run a little bit of thin honey water around the insides of the bowl with a q-tip and let it dry overnight, and it will cake up quickly.

As for the stain (not varnish), you can remove most of it with a q-tip and some rum or everclear. But really I wouldn't worry about it.