China fork fail?
 

You all may have been right about these china forks not being safe. Check this out.
What do you think of these voids and delamination areas in the tube after I cut it? I used a high rpm rotary tool with composite disks to cut. So zero vibration. Melts like butter. I sanded it to get it smooth and clean and this is what I found. Would you trust this fork after finding this?

https://cimg3.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...b9e45db9e.jpeg
One side of the left over.
https://cimg4.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...f2e689072.jpeg
The other side of the left over.
https://cimg5.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...f6c158007.jpeg
This is the fork after cutting.

Well, of course any gaps would be a concern... because I wouldn't know how common that might be ...
Can't remember what the cut section looked like when I last cut a carbon steerer, but likely no gaps...
...would I trust it? that depends... maybe a bit as to the position/orientation of the gap relative to the fore/aft area of the fork (assuming that the fore/aft forces are much higher than the side to side)
and also what might be clamping onto that area - the stem?
and what kind of riding severity of shocks and loads where the steerer is clamped...
then there's the question of the condition of the actual crown and fork blades...
... your roll of the dice...
Ride On
Yuri

I wouldn't trust a carbon fork with voids like that especially one from an unknown maker with probably no support behind it. In the end as always and forever will be "Caveat Emptor"

There is a reason why ENVE or Ritchey or similar manufacturers cost what seems like more money and it is not because they are scamming you or just charging more to charge more, they are making quality products and supporting those products. They are taking a lot of time to design products that will last and do more quality control. When you try to save money going elsewhere you pay for it just after purchase sometimes quite heavily.

A question Is this to portion that you cut off? It is possible that what you didn't cut off is entirely safe

I have cut plenty of carbon steerer tubes as well as an entire carbon tubed frame and have never seen gaps like you show here. My choice is to toss it into the trash, but only after cutting it up some more to see if the other portions of the steerer along with the fork blades and crown have the same defect.

It’s so believable with those voids and delamination when I say it’s a china fork. Would you believe it’s a $1000 fork? What if I told you this is a cane creek invert? Because it is. I am still at a complete loss for words and have yet to contact cane creek with these photos. Maybe all you are wrong about price buying quality control? Not one of the 4 or 5 china forks I have used in my builds has looked this bad. The one and only issue I have had with a cheap china fork was the brake caliper mounts were not square to the rotor. Otherwise I have never seen this kind of factory defect even in a $100 fork from allibaba.
https://cimg3.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...423d7b9cd.jpeg
https://cimg4.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...d4964db1c.jpeg

Look at the last photo. Would you chance riding that considering what the cut piece looks like?

I just sent an email to canecreek with these pictures. It’s worth noting that the carbon china fork I got with bad brake caliper mounts refunded me on the spot with no return. Also when I got a bad custom Ti fork out of china for my Ti bike build they also refunded me in full with no issues. So far the china companies have stood behind their product with full refunds no questions asked. Let’s see how one of the high end companies handles this.

For the record I got this invert because I don’t trust the Ritchey wcs fork I already have. This is because the head tube on the wcs is from the 90s and I would have to adapt from 1.25 integrated to 1.5” taper with a crown race. Who even makes a frame with a 1.25” head tube anymore? lol
So this is a double fail for the high end forks lol. $1600 in forks and I need a $400 head set/adaptor only made by Chris king for the Ritchey or the steer tube is total junk on the invert. High End Quality Baby! Bad layup and 30 year outdated designs that requires expensive adaptors.

What if I told you a fork could cost $1000 AND be from China?

Almost sounds like the OP wants CC to not respond.

If I had dropped a grand on a fork and saw this I would have been on the phone with the vendor right away letting them know they need to check their email and get this straightened out right away instead of taking it up on a forum to support my shilling of cheap Chinese junk.

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Voids might be a issue for it being as strong as it can possibly be. But they may not be a issue for it being as strong as it needs to be.

Without destructive testing and knowing what the design spec's are for the loads that piece is supposed to have. Everything here will just be speculation.

Blurb says hand built to order in Fletcher NC, so not this fork.
Stockton Rush would be proud.

Who cares? How CC responds will be what's interesting.

The OP's whole premise -- the thread title and the opening post -- were lies, and he clearly has an agenda. I'm not sure that we should trust anything else he might claim.

Agreed. 'Lies' or not, the thread title, opening post, and then the 'reveal' were clearly at the very least both tendentious and a deliberate -- albeit silly -- attempt at a 'gotcha!' in pursuit of the op's agenda.

And just like that canecreek is replacing the fork and want it back to see what happened. Fast and immediate action on their part.

The agenda is clear. I’m sick to death of everybody here spouting all these high-end companies like they don’t have failures and they don’t have mistakes that get through quality control. This is a prime example of that. This is a high-end brand and it got through their quality control no different than a cheap China company.

Canecreek has immediately agreed to replace the fork and once the old one back for inspection. It will be in the mail tomorrow.

It's the matching cross section. Do you think those voids magically end there somehow?...

I want to apologize for how I did this. It was perhaps bad form but I do get really sick of the hate towards cheaper products with the claim you get what you pay for.

I have paid for both high end and the cheapest crap on alliexpress and gotten as much crap from name brands as from the cheap china products. This is why I hate carbon fiber in the bike industry. Zero standards between producers and no international standards like with metals.

Not my take. I would expect anyone to be taken aback by similar 'unexpxected'. I would certainly be in contact with the maker. But, also being part of this online community I might bring it up here.
I've read a number of this poster's threads, and yes, maybe he's a proponent of Chinese made products - not a terrible thing...
I'm old enough to remember when anything Japanese was considered 'junk'... Certainly not the case for many, many decades. Same maturation process has happened all over Asia...
Wine from The US... it happens everywhere.
CHinese companies and goods have been difficult to work with - but that seems to be changing in a big way. And it's not some ubiquitous monolith. I'd say there's a serious and strong effort to greatly improve the world marketplace's concept of what goods from china means... DO I agree with their political system in place? Not something for discussion here...
Poster wants to stir up some controversy? Fine, when it has some basis to stand on...
This fork steerer tube doesn't come up to what I would consider general expectations of us uneducated users... so we're party, as viewers, to an experiment and inquiry which strikes home - good.
I have, over recent seasons, tried many chinese bike parts, and the vast majority were a big surprise, in a good way.
How Cane Creek responds will be telling and I'm interested.
just my opinion... as you have stated yours
Ride On
Yuri

EDIT: I wrote this while the OP was posting an update... so comments were based on all the prior posts. Still, comments apply, and it's good to see that the Brand company is concerned and working with the buyer... Yes, expectations of quality need to be upheld, at the same time 'quality' is often not a price related thing. Integrity has no price...

I don't recall seeing that claim here on bf.

really? I recall, seeing many many times people on this board posting how they wouldn’t trust their life to China garbage because somehow the quality control on their high end brand is better and they are safer as a result.
The simple fact is all of these carbon components have the same likelihood of defect, and without proper scanning techniques to verify each part is sound after production, and does not have a defect, you have absolutely no way of knowing whether or not that carbon component has a defect that could kill you. It doesn’t matter who manufactures it.
that’s how I see it at this point.

And again sorry for how I approached this.

The fact is there is no international standard like there is with metals that carbon fiber products have to adhere to. How do we know it was a t800 or whatever? Was it scanned after production to ensure its defect free?

Try getting this type of response from some anonymous temu, or aliexpress vendor.

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There certainly are standards for carbon fiber. But, low cost manufacturers are under no obligation to use certified carbon fiber, just as they’re under no obligation to use certified aluminum or steel.