Originally Posted by
eaglespeed
... the kind of damage on the stanchion that I was worried about only effects air forks since they make an opening in the seal and the pressured air starts to escape from the seal.
Even with an air fork, those are not the seals that hold in the air. Those seals keep sand and dirt out of the bath oil and away from the bushings. The air seals are inside the stanchions and aren't visible from the outside.