as marino said it in a simple way,it makes it stronger,and especially more durable.
josh,noone didnt mention the treatment procedure thats used,its normalization,then tempering.in germany we have the DIN 8580 norm for welded steel constructions,it says that the tensile strength goes down aprox 10% near the haz,with normalization this negative effects are gone.
in every welded construction are haz-related weak points.
the idea came with the need to treat fork legs with the new alloy,he had to glow them smooth(right term?)to bend them,as a result he and me tried it on a frame.
youre a welder,too,you surely know about whats likely to happen if you dont have those holes:
"cold" surrounding air,hot(500+C°) air inside the tube,expanding to twice the volume.
i´ve seen tubes making "plop" and having a crack over half the lenght after that.
no offence,but i thought welders have to know that stuff.
you didnt answer my question about the colour isitafox,will it change?
edit:parousia is ancient greek for "arrival",well chosen