Tubing

Seamed Tubing – Made from a flat piece of metal that is rolled, hand planished and then seamed, the Altus seamed tube is truly the only handmade flute tube available in modern production. Altus seamed tubes are slightly thinner and handmade in a choice of two types of silver – Britannia silver (1607) and Altus Silver™ (AL).

Sintered Tubing – A process unique to Altus where powdered silver metal is compacted at a high temperature to fuse particles together directly into a rigid tube.

Extruded Tubing – Metal is drawn over a mandrel through a precise die to form a tube. This construction is the modern standard in the flute industry.

Metallurgy

Altus leads the way in providing an unprecedented array of tubing and material choices for the needs of discerning flutists. By combining old world craftsmanship with modern alloys and tubing construction, an incredible range of flutes can be tailored to the specific needs of any flutist. Altus provides the most unique variety of flute tubing and materials in the world today.

Alloys

Altus Silver™ – Our proprietary Altus Silver™ alloy is a perfectly engineered blend consisting of 94.6% silver and several precious metals, including small amounts of platinum and gold. Inspired by the preferred metallurgy of the great French flute making tradition, Altus silver was designed specifically for seamed tube creation. This results in a flute capable of producing a wide array of complex tonal colors.

Pure Silver – Our exclusive 99.7% pure silver tube is made possible only through highly innovative sinter technology. Sinter technology creates mechanically and physically enhanced tubes by compacting the silver powder under great pressure, which solves the problem of pure silver being too soft for traditional flute making. This unique process produces a dense and brilliant hard silver tube with supreme projecting qualities.

Britannia Silver – A traditionally created silver alloy composed of 95.8% silver. The remaining common metals balance a dark, rich tonal color without sacrificing brilliance.

Sterling Silver – Comprised of 92.5% silver, Sterling has long been the industry standard for making high quality flutes.

Gold – a deluxe material with its superior properties like density, softness, malleability, ductility, gold is unaffected by air and most reagents, making it a good material for making flutes. Altus Flutes offers 18K and 14K Gold. These alloys provide different sound qualities that meet different needs of flutists.