A standard orchestral flute commonly uses nickel silver for its keys.
Nickel silver is a copper-nickel-zinc alloy; despite its name, it contains no elemental silver. Instrument makers value it because it is strong, workable, resistant to corrosion, and suitable for the many small rods, cups, posts, and key arms used on a modern Boehm-system flute. Some student flutes have nickel-silver keys plated with silver, while professional instruments may use solid silver, gold, or platinum for the tube and sometimes other components.
The flute body itself is not necessarily made from the same material as its keys. Student models are often silver-plated nickel silver, whereas more expensive instruments may be made from sterling silver or precious metals. This distinction can cause confusion: “silver flute” may describe the body material or plating, not the metal used in every key. The modern concert flute developed from the nineteenth-century Boehm design, which greatly improved fingering and key coverage.