What Happened to Boron Treated Cubes?

[GodCubing]

I quit speed cubing for around 4 years, and I come back and there are magnets! Then I found out that there used to be such a thing as a boron treated cube? I don't understand what boron treating a cube does, or why they stopped. Could someone clarify for me about boron treated puzzles.

BTW boron treated cubes look really cool.

 

[OreKehStrah]

I quit speed cubing for around 4 years, and I come back and there are magnets! Then I found out that there used to be such a thing as a boron treated cube? I don't understand what boron treating a cube does, or why they stopped. Could someone clarify for me about boron treated puzzles.

BTW boron treated cubes look really cool.

Treating cubes with boron gave them a really smooth feeling, but I believe it was a very expensive process and would wear out sooner than you would want a very expensive cube to wear out. It just wasn't really worth it. I never really looked too much into so I could have missed something but the general gist was it was just expensive for very little benefit.