How about gold, then? I heard of a gold-plated Taylor set somewhere. And I believe Dave Quinn made some gold or gold-plated NSPs for Alan Jones, with 24 keys on the chanters or some such figure.
Enough gold sheet metal for a staple blank costs about $30 as I recall…
i know where you can get sheet platinum too - but I think it’s right out 
Thunderbird Supply sells gold-filled sheet at something approximating ‘affordable’; problem with ferrules is you wouldn’t want to “machine a little off the outside” to clean them up after soldering the tubes then… maybe metal spinning techniques would do the trick.
www.hooverandstrong.com They have it all. Gold sheet and tube of all kinds and many gauges. And all sorts of other stuff. Interesting site to look around. Maybe a blackwood and pink gold set would be nice. 