Fork - potential failure modes?

[mayan42]

I've just finished my first steel brazed fork - a straight legged, lugged crown with tab dropouts.

I've built 3 frames previous to this, the latest has done about 3000kms and I've just stripped it for a new paint job and had a good look at the joints and couldnt find any cracks.

Obviously, the failure of a fork is potentially more serious than a frame, so I'm wondering what I should be on the look out for.
I brazed it with brass, firstly the dropouts to fork blade, then blades to the crown and then the crown to the steerer. I was able to see full penetration of the brass all the through the crown lug to the back and also from the steerer through - so I'm reasonably happy that the joints are full of brass.

Based on this, presumably the most likely failure is me over heating the tubes and / or working too slowly, so how would this manifest itself? I'm guessing the tubes lifespan is reduced - so a crack appearing over time?
Should I just ride it and check it after every journey for the first few rides?

Is there anything else I should be looking for? Anything else I can check before I ride it?

thanks.

[jon_norstog]

MArk, ride it hard and see what happens. Unless you cooked a joint or conversely have a cold joint/s in the crown, it will be OK. Probably. A cooked steel tube is blackened aND develops cracks quickly; if you heard a sizzle and saw a lot of color and smoke while you were brazing, you are probably OK. A cold joint, which is something 'builders sometimes get when they are trying too hard for the no_HAZ, never-a-hint-of-burned-flux look, comes loose gradually. Nice thing about steel is it generally fails slowly. Ride your fork for a year before you build one for a client,

Good luck!

jn

"Thursday"

[mayan42]

thanks Jon,

that was kind of my thinking, pretty sure a cold joint is unlikely, and i wont be building for any clients anytime soon, this is definitely a hobby!

i will ride it and check it, and repeat....