What is that gray coating inside a new pipe bowl?

I am relatively new to pipe smoking, so please bear with me. One fool can ask more questions in an hour than ten wise men would answer in a year. So, I recently bought on eBay a cheapish but funny looking briar pipe (here is a link to the page, while it lasts). The pipe is new unsmoked. What got me worried is that the inside of the bowl is lined with some type of dark grey (or, better put, steel-colored) coating. You can probably see the color on the right-most photograph on the auction page, a view from the top. Briar pipes that I bought before had just their wooden surface exposed inside. The coating actually looks like film, or maybe thick paint, and it partially covered the draft hole. I even had to poke it through to get the hole completely uncovered.
Has anyone seen such a thing before? I am a bit wary of getting vapors of that into my mouth. I though I would rather scrape it clean, but I would like to ask forum's opinion first.

anglesey: Thanks, I figure out this is to protect the bowl. Carbonization is rather a process, and, depending on what carbonizes, may or may not produce unpleasant chemicals in process. For example, sugars in honey have a gross formula of (CH2О)_n, and under heating break down into C, the carbon to line the bowl, and H2O, just water. There's a reason they are called carbohydrates! Very safe and neutral indeed. But other organics may whiff off nitrogen oxide, ammonia and other nasties when decomposing under heating.
mso489: Yes, I know it's a cheap pipe. I liked the shape though, and also needed a pipe I can part with, as the camping season nears, but still better than a corncob. The box has a "KSI" logo and a model number on it; the brand is mentioned on this very forum once. Unfortunately, nowhere else on the 'Net. :|
mrjerke: not the first, heaven save! My first was Brigham Heritage, still a favorite one, and I am thanking myself to this day for breaking my piggybank to get it!
Thanks everybody for all the links and ideas. This is my first post here, and the response speed and rate and overall helpfulness is overwhelming. Thank you guys!