Is it forked? Fork Diagnosis

I've come to rebuild my neglected Allez and I've noticed two hairline cracks on both sides of the fork blades. The fork is alloy, and it has a some tyre rub on one side.
Not sure if it they are just cosmetic or structural, maybe people with a better eye can take a look:

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What do you think?

looks a little funky, could you sand it back a little around the crack?

then you could def tell if its actually cracked, or if its just the paint.

I could sand it back where the tyre rub is, I'll check it there.

Is it a just a coincidence that it's happened in the same place on both blades, or is that where the fork takes most of the stress? not sure if it's just the paint being weak there or a bigger issue.

If it's flexing enough to crack the paint it's bad news. Play safe when it comes to forks, the phrase "catastrophic failure" comes to mind.

And factor in cosmetic reconstructive surgery.

Are you sure they're not ally crown/sterer and carbon blades? That might explain the cracking at the same position on both sides.

Sanding sounds like a good idea. (also, don't spesh do a lifetime guarantee against frame/forks?)

I'm all out of sandpaper but i've chiseled the paint back a bit with a screwdriver, can't see any major crack underneath, but it's far from conclusive:

I'm probably not going to use this fork again, and to be honest the bike is a size too small for me anyway.

As far as the flex goes, would the paint cracking be a symptom of a low end fork taking a beating over the last few years? I'm sure this fork isn't the stiffest. I'm not one to dodge holes in the road and I enjoy jumping off kerbs!

This was the 2013 version that I picked up, I think it was a downgrade on all other versions.

I may take it into the Concept store in Kingston this weekend, see what they say about it. Hopefully me duffing up the existing rub doesn't void it... D'Oh.

New forks are cheaper then dentistry bills.

Yes, yes they are! There's no way I'm riding these again, luckily it's pretty much been sidelined since last summer.

Check with the retailer, spesh have had the most recalls on forks of any manufacturer in the history of time*

*required or not required, those forks are just low end jobs, carbon sections bonded to an alloy crown, they often look like that right out of the box, I think they might be painted not long after being glued together. So as the glue dries (it keeps drying and shrinking back for days, probably weeks on a scale of sort) it affects the painted layer.

I have a whole collection of bust carbon forks that have been retired from my bikes, customer bikes and mates bikes that get to the stage of 'erm is that going to fail on me'. So far none of them have failed, whether thats because I/they are over cautious, or because its just movement/flex thats affected the paint and nothing to worry about. Either way, I've had around £90k of orthodontics and jaw reconstruction already (due to a bike/kerb/face when I was about 8) and really don't want to have any of that done again.

Even a basic/vanity crown is a couple of grand, which is more than I'll likely ever spend in my life on carbon forks.

double post

Oddly enough i had the same issue with a set of forks, I assumed it was at the joint between the alloy and carbon meeting, decided not to use them to be sure, then destroyed them before chucking them away.

After cutting them up I noticed the crack wasn't exactly where the two materials met, but there must have been enough flex in the blades to crack the lacquer and the carbon at that point, so still not worth it -

I think the moral of the CSB is you never really know whats going on with carbon unless you X-ray it, so always better to be safe than sorry