I bought a few month ago an old french Thibouville wooden flute (ebony or rosewood) with 6 keys. I cleaned it, repaired the cracks and changed the pads and the cork. But there's still a "little" problem: some keys are missing, and I don't know where I could buy some new ones to replace them... Could someone help me ? I don't mind if I have to buy them in USA, Ireland, France or Germany (the country where I live now, even if I will be back in France in a few days)...
You will have to get custom-made keys, there are no stock replacements available. Every flutemaker who makes keys should be able to do it for you. In Germany I'd recommend Andreas Rogge, he normally makes pipes but their keywork is pristine. Another maker who does very good keywork is flutemaker Thomas Aebi from Basel/Switzerland.
Your other and maybe better/more realistic alternative is to buy one or more cheap "junk" flutes with similar keys and cannibalise them. There are plenty of old French flutes go through on eBay, and as most are at old diapason normal (A=432-5Hz) they don't tend to achieve high prices. Spot ones that are obviously badly/unsalvageably damaged but have all their keys (or at least the ones you want)..... most of these have very similar style keys. Of course, they may not fit perfectly on to your restoration project as they come off their original flute (even another Thibouville) and may need adapting, but that should be both easier and cheaper than having new ones made from scratch , even if you can't do the metalwork yourself - and it isn't that hard to set yourself up to hard solder - a little cutting, soldering, bending, filing and tweaking and you should be able to sort something out! If you can't/don't fancy learning to do this stuff yourself, a decent woodwind technician could do the fitting for you - such a person may even have a box of junkers to cannibalise from. Even if you have to source the replacement keys yourself, out-sourcing the actual work would be more expensive than doing it yourself, but still much cheaper and quicker than paying for new-made keys, probably with a significant wait.
I respect people's privilege to hold their beliefs, whatever those may be (within reason), but respect the beliefs themselves? You gotta be kidding!
I might have something laying around here you could have for a modest amount. Send me a good picture of the flute to my email address (not here) and I'll see if I have the keys in my junk pile.
I don't mind if I have to buy them in USA, Ireland, France or Germany (the country where I live now, even if I will be back in France in a few days)...
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