If you are going to stain it as a pipe craft project, buy another one and just let it be. It is pretty wonderful
how unfinished pipes just finish themselves with smoking. I have two unfinished Savs from about 35 years
ago that, to me, are just beautiful. If you polish them up with a rag. they glow. I recently bought another
one. The two older ones are a trim spare billiard and a terrific zulu (404 shape). The new one is a billiard panel.
This doesn't look like stain. It's a kind of matte finish but has a depth that's really classy. My local pipe shop
owner praised one of them, the billiard, for being unpretentious, but I think they have a kind of rustic classiness
that can't be matched by anything else.