Lugged frames were common until the late 1980's, the joining method requires that the lugs and tubes are joined accurately and then brazed together. This method was used from the earliest days of bicycle building as it yielded a strong frame and the lugs set the angle for the tubing which made mass production easier. Lugged frames also dictated a narrower range of frame angles so bicycles that required angles that lugs could not provide would be filet brazed and TIG welded on a bigger scale.

TIG welding became the most popular as automated machinery could handle the set up and alignment of non lugged joints and weld them together and this eliminated the cost of the lugs, this coincided with Aluminium frames rising in popularity and these are also TIG welded.

Filet brazing is something you will get with custom builders... very few companies ever mass produced filet brazed frames because of the work involved. Schwinn made filet brazed frames on a production level and during the world wars many companies did this as steel was rationed and lugs were a luxury.

Not all lugs, tubes, or construction is equal... there are mass produced steel bicycles with lugs than can be very nice (the Japanese really excelled at this) and then you have custom builders who pay meticulous attention to tubing, will hand cut lugs, and do exceptional work.

We build steel frames and most of our work is filet brazed although we do build lugged frames and these are actually easier as a filet brazed frame might take a number of days to complete and we could build at least one lugged frame and fork a day if the demand was there.