I've been wondering: why doesn't anyone make mechanisms out of stainless steel?
It's strong, hard-wearing, resistant to corrosion, its thermal expansion is actually smaller then silver's, it looks good, and it's cheap.
Is it too expensive to manufacture? If so then a company like Yamaha which makes flutes in huge numbers should be able to get the costs down by bulk production.
Does it affect the sound, and if so why? I can see why making the head or body out of steel might affect the sound, but why would the mechanism?

In a similar vein, why don't they make concert flutes out of plastics, modelled on wooden flutes? I know about the carbon-fibre Matit, but that's different and expensive. They make Picolo's out of ABS, Bass and contra-bass flutes out of PVC, why not ordinary flutes?

Ideas anyone?

According to what I found on Wikipedia, there are sorts of corrosions that, if they are dangerous to a building, could be dangerous to a flute. (Weird compairison).

"When deprived of oxygen (or when another species such as chloride competes as an ion), stainless steel lacks the ability to re-form a passivating film. In the worst case, almost all of the surface will be protected, but tiny local fluctuations will degrade the oxide film in a few critical points. Corrosion at these points will be greatly amplified, and can cause corrosion pits of several types, depending upon conditions. While the corrosion pits only nucleate under fairly extreme circumstances, they can continue to grow even when conditions return to normal, since the interior of a pit is naturally deprived of oxygen. In extreme cases, the sharp tips of extremely long and narrow pits can cause stress concentration to the point that otherwise tough alloys can shatter, or a thin film pierced by an invisibly small hole can hide a thumb sized pit from view. These problems are especially dangerous because they are difficult to detect before a part or structure fails. Pitting remains among the most common and damaging forms of corrosion in stainless alloys, but it can be prevented by ensuring that the material is exposed to oxygen (for example, by eliminating crevices) and protected from chloride wherever possible.

Pitting corrosion can occur when stainless steel is subjected to high concentration of chloride ions (for example, sea water) and moderately high temperatures."

So, based on this, wouldn't a flute made of stainless steel, or at least the mechanisms, eventually start to corrode after some exposure to saltly air (like on the coast) and high temps?

"Stainless steel can actually rust quite rapidly if it fails to form its protective oxide layer. This tends to happen when the stainless has had carbon steel forced into its surface, as by being dragged over carbon steel during installation, brushing with carbon steel, grinding with a contaminated wheel, or temporary welds to carbon steel."

The only thing that really applies here would be the carbon steel bit. I am not sure if a flute or parts of a flute would be made with carbon steel, but it sounds like, if stainless steel would come in contact with carbon steel, bad things would happen to the stainless steel. Plus, wouldn't stainless steel have problems, also, if there were other metals present besides carbon steel? The layer over the stainless steel (that makes it stainless?) could corrode under other circumstances, too, right?

I think it would be an interesting experiment to actually make a "frankenstein-flute" and see how it holds up and what it sounds like. Has anyone ever done an experiment with stainless steel to see what it would be like in terms of tone and sound quality/pitch? Scientists have tested a lot of crazy things, who knows?






Weld decay and knifeline attack
s called pitting corrosion and

<Added>

sorry about the "weld decay and knifeline attack.." stuff... that was left over from the cutting and pasting of the info on Wikipedia and I didn't catch it! Sorry! :)

They actually do make mechanism of stainless. Stephen Wessel, a UK flutemaker only offers flutes with a stainless mechanism. He says that it is quite a bit more difficult to work, which explains the price, but he seems to believe that it only has a positive impact on the way the flutes play by reducing the key weight and allowing for a faster mechanism. They also make plastic flutes modeled after wooden ones, such as the poorman's wooden flute, which I believe is available through Woodwind Brasswind.

The Stephen Wessel flute looks just awesome! Waaaaay beyond my budget though .
I still don't get why a company like Yamaha, where bulk production would bring the cost of manufacture down, doesn't make them. I'm not sure the corrosion problem would really be an issue in a flute, provided it was well made, or at least no bigger than the problems you now get with silver plated mechanisms.

I've looked for plastic flutes, and all I can find are Celtic/Irish, Baroque or Indian flutes. No Boehm flutes, even though you can get some really nice wooden ones.

Wessel makes flutes out of stainless steel. Don't know if the steels themselves are made from stainless however..

http://www.wessel-flutes.co.uk/Home.htm

Joe B

"I've looked for plastic flutes, and all I can find are Celtic/Irish, Baroque or Indian flutes. No Boehm flutes, even though you can get some really nice wooden ones."

Take a look around for the Poorman's flute that I suggested. It is supposed to replicate the sound and feel of a wooden flute (and it has a Boehm mechanism), but is made of plastic.