My Experience with Sinan Altinok Meerschaum Pipes

[rmklaw]

I ordered my first Fancy Meershaum pipe from Sinan Altinok in Ankara, Turkey. What a wonderful experience dealing with Sinan. A real gentleman and outstanding customer service. The pipe arrived via DHL in 3 days. It was beautiful. Unfortunately I found a hairline stress crack in the shank. Hard to tell what happened or if it was a temperature variation during shipment. Regardless, I contacted Sinan to explain the issue. He immediately responded to select another pipe and he would send it at no charge. I selected a more expensive pipe and offered to pay the difference. Sinan would not accept the difference and was very apologetic about the issue. He shipped the replacement pipe last Friday and it arrived today.. Beautiful pipe and perfect.

The whole experience of dealing with Sinan Altinok has been great. Great merchant, great customer service and trust-worthy, and Sinan makes you feel confident about purchasing an expensive pipe half-way around the world. Will buy again from him.

 

[AJL67]

Gorgeous pipe and a BOGO!

 

[rmklaw]

The best thing is the experience. We are always concerned about reliability of purchasing overseas. This experience was great.

 

[weezell]

Nice!!!...

 

[NC TX ID pipeman]

Beautiful pipe!!was this one on his website?I do not remember seeing it...

 

[MarcosEZLN]

I've only heard great things about Altinok pipes, and reading his occasional posts on various forums gives the impression he's a stand up guy. Nice to hear it confirmed.

 

[jpberg]

Sinan works hard to keep his customers happy.

 

[brian64]

I hope someone can explain why these Altinok morta & meerschaum calabashes are not worth the price...because I fear I may end up purchasing one in my sleep.

 

[Chasing Embers]

I hope someone can explain why these Altinok morta & meerschaum calabashes are not worth the price...

Morta doesn't have the absorbency of a gourd and if carved as thin as a traditional gourd, it'll be fragile as glass.


Edit:

Okay, that looks pretty thick.

 

[Chasing Embers]

Hard to tell what happened

The nature of natural material. Meerschaum often has undetected fractures in the block that work their way to the surface over time.

 

[brian64]

Edit:

Okay, that looks pretty thick.

You're not helping.

No, really I doubt I could spend that much on a pipe (but I know better than to say never).

 

[brian64]

Morta doesn't have the absorbency of a gourd

So given that the bowl is meerschaum with both a gourd and the morta, what would you expect the difference to be in smoking characteristics over time...if any?

 

[Chasing Embers]

So given that the bowl is meerschaum with both a gourd and the morta, what would you expect the difference to be in smoking characteristics over time...if any?

Likely no different than a straight meerschaum. The benefit of it not being gourd would be the lack of multiple smokes to get the full flavor of the tobacco. Given the typical small size of the meerschaum cap, it would likely not take long to get past the chalkiness.

 

[brian64]

They also have all morta pipes by Denovic.

 

[Chasing Embers]

They also have all morta pipes by Denovic.

If he carved a convincing skull I'd probably get one. I have one morta but wasn't really impressed enough with it as a pipe material to buy another.

 

[brian64]

I have one morta but wasn't really impressed enough with it as a pipe material to buy another.

That's interesting. I've been intrigued with morta and thought maybe I should have one...but maybe it's not worth it.

 

[TheWhale13]

Wonderful pipe and service! That is some nice metalwork for a meerschaum.

 

[captpat]

Great looking pipe, I've ordered several times from Altinok, a great experience each time.

 

[brian64]

Here's one I think @Chasing Embers might like:

 

[Chasing Embers]

Here's one I think @Chasing Embers might like:

Quite a bit more than I've ever paid for a meerschaum, but you're right. I do like it!