Originally Posted by
Ken Cox
Some steel compositions, such as 4130 and 8630, have not changed over the years (4130 has a very long history for all types of uses, depending on heat treatment), but the processes for making steels has continually improved, as have the processes for extruding steel into tubes, and especially butted tubes, such as Kaisei's currently quad-butted 4130 tubing.
FWIW, Ishiwata was selling quad-butted tubing back in the early 80s, so even that isn't really a modern improvement.