Cleaning up joints

I spent about an hour in the basement yesterday cleaning up the joint I made over the weekend.  The solder material is much softer than the steel, which makes removing the excess pretty easy.  I used a triangular mill file to remove the bulk of the excess; the points on the file worked great at keeping the joint clean and sharp.

After removing most of the extra solder with the mill file, I alternated between a medium-grade emory paper and a square needle file.  The emory paper was better at removing material from the steerer tube, while the needle file was good for removing material from the fork crown and keeping the joint profile square.

I noticed a small amount of pitting in the solder while I was cleaning it up, and I'm not sure what to make of that.  I was removing material from the "bottom" of the weld - where the solder flowed out of the joint - which is actually the top of the fork crown.  I think, but am not positive, that the pitting is probably due to the fact that I tried reheating the joint in some places to get more solder in and fill in the small section of the joint that didn't have a large glob coming out the bottom.  I could try to file the joint down some more, but this will all be hidden by the headset, so I'm not sure it's really necessary.

After finishing the outside of the joint, I took a round file and cleaned out some of the junk on the inside of the tube.  I also had missed some flux that had dripped into the steerer threads, so I took out the wire brush again and cleaned that up.  I think this joint is now "done".  There will be more work to do after the fork blades are attached.

One thing I realized - after the bike is finished, there's going to be a large hole in the bottom of the fork crown where the steerer tube ends.  Do people normally seal these up somehow?  Without a fender, a lot of grime and muck is going to get thrown into the fork.  I've never noticed a hole on any other bike I've owned, but maybe I'm just not attentive enough.