Lead warnings with flutes?

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ElseaSparkle
Posts: 4
Joined: Mon Jul 29, 2019 12:58 pm

Lead warnings with flutes?

Post by ElseaSparkle »

I was looking at the Bundy BFL - 300 and there was a lead warning on it!
The description said silver-plated. Is it only silver-plated flutes that you need to watch out for?
My old one (50 year old flute) is nickel-plated, and I'm hoping it doesn't have lead in it too.
Would like to see a comment about lead in flutes. Thank you.

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pied_piper
Posts: 1962
Joined: Sat Mar 31, 2007 1:31 pm
Location: Virginia

Re: Lead warnings with flutes?

Post by pied_piper »

Any metal wind instruments (flutes, saxes, trumpets, trombones, horns, tubas, etc) that were made more than 30 or so years ago was assembled by soldering part together. The metal tubing and keys do not have lead in them but at that time the solder was composed of tin and lead. So any older instrument will almost definitely has a very tiny amount of lead in the soldered joints. Normally, the solder is plated over by nickel or silver so you are not actually coming in direct contact with lead. However, if the instrument was damaged and a joint had to be re-soldered, then it's likely that solder is not covered with plating. HOWEVER, IMO, the risks are very low. Unless you make a practice of licking the soldered joints, your exposure is virtually nil...
"Never give a flute player a screwdriver."
--anonymous--

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