Carbon Fork: Cosmetic or?
 

Looking for a 2nd opinion on my new frameset's fork. I was about to trim my fork's carbon steerer to length when I noticed a few visible anomalies on the finish.

Pictured are these linear "gouges" and a small divot that look like a tooling tip grazed the exterior. One of them is diagonal to the length of the steerer. Another runs along what appears to be a manufacturing "seam". If i had to guess their depth, it would be around 0.5 to 0.75mm deep.
https://cimg5.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...aecfe9deb7.jpg
https://cimg8.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...0f126b5c00.jpg


Do these look purely cosmetic, or is there a potential for structural failure?

My camera always makes stuff look worse, but it looks like new fork day to me.

If it is indeed new, I would put away the saw and see about warranty replacement.

If it were me, I'd take it into a qualified shop and have them look at it. You'll get a bunch of opinions on the internet that may or may not be right, but without seeing it in person I have no idea how anyone could determine if it's a potential concern or not.

I wouldn't take a chance on a steerer and now feel the need to pull my bike apart and inspect mine.

Yes, it's funny how lighting can change perspective. But I did choose these from a number of pictures, as the most accurate to the real thing.

Sorry for causing you any paranoia :) I plan to take it to a shop later in the day to get a 3rd opinion, but figured I'd ask here to see if anyone could identify it as a big red flag.

I've contacted the distributor, who then contacted the company, and they both say they are superficial marks and part of the mfg process/within quality spec. But I feel the need to do my due diligence because of all the framesets I've built/worked on, I've never come across a carbon steerer tube this imperfect.

I dont manufacture forks, but those marks go against grain and i don't understand how they are made, based on what i understand from carbon frame building.

Odd.

Looks pretty normal to me. But it never hurts to ask your shop for their opinion.

Who is the manufacturer? I want to avoid them.

That fork should've never left the factory.

That doesn't seem safe to me. But I'm not an expert.

I wouldn't ride that fork.

Hmmmmm, cameras exaggerate things a bit but even that looks suspect to me enough I would return it for a new one. If mail ordered I would ask the vendor to shoot pictures of it to send me so I could decide if the replacement is good. I am not saying that the one you have is bad so to speak as I am not a carbon fiber builder/engineer < although I majored for a while in college for mechanical engineering, but those imperfections look a bit too much to me.

Looks better than my fork except that diagonal mark (mine has more seams). Sent pictures to the shop for warranty, in a bit of back and forth between the shop and manufacturer now.

I rode on mine for 6000km, only noticed the poor workmanship pretty recently and rode over some good bumps along the way and no externally visible cracks, delaminations or whatnot occurred on the not so well glued areas, so mechanically it's acceptable, but of course it bugs me to see a poor job on the fork and I want it replaced, and such imperfections are a weak point.
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I'd return it if bought new but it is probably fine. Here's what I found on mine:

https://cimg9.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...b45690e412.jpg
Seams on the fork clearly visible