 You don't need to be an 'investor' to invest in Singletrack: 6 days left: 95% of target - Find out more
Noticed a tiny superficial 'hole' in the kashima on my 36s the other day - probably a scratch from a crash - about 1mm across in size and 2-3cm up from the bottom of the stanchion (so it's gonna get scraped/worn a lot as the fork moves through its travel). Is it likely to get rapidly worse and start flaking around the edges or expanding, or anything? Should I do anything to help preserve the rest of the kashima? Ta for any tips.
I would ignore it.
So long as you service the lowers regularly (once a year or more) you will be fine. If the scratch is big enough for oil to weep past the seals then do the lowers a bit more often. Its a tiny amount of oil that keeps the bushes moving freely, but its not going to affect your rebound/compression.
Keeping the forks clean and after washing using a bit of silcone spray is good. Stops the dirt sticking.
Some paint the scratch with nail varnish, but Id not bother.
There's a GMBN video on youtube on how to do the nail varnish thing.
If you've got a burr, you're best off getting rid of it.
Cheers for these tips. It's a tiny mark and there's no burr, so I'm not worries about performance unless it gets worse - was mainly wondering if the coating is likely to wear now there's a flaw in it. I'm inclined to ignore it really. Rode the bike twice since I noticed it and there's no issue with oil/performance etc. I use silicone spray anyway, and the forks are due a service any time now so I'll crack on with that.
I'd at least seal it.
You can hit Kashima with a surprising amount of fine wet-and-dry sanding without effecting the finish.
Being that nail varnish/laquer is much softer you can do multiple sanded costs to bring the hole back up to the Kashima level if you want.
Sealing it would stop any local oxidation of the exposed metal.
Time to buy out of the whole Kashima fashion farcical.