Who's done it besides me ?

The Stanton has an aluminum baseball bat for a cantilever. Bend it enough and it will tear. Boron is very strong but brittle. Go far enough and they just snap. They stick the cantilever out there so that there are no reflections off the body. Lyra does the same thing. Like a wood turning lathe you have to be very deliberate when you approach it as you are always close to disaster. 
I did snap the cantilever off a Grado. But, it was an old worn out cartridge. I was playing around with it under a microscope. I'm not having it retipped. If I do another Grado it will be an Aeon. 
Old MM cartridges can not compete with a modern MC cartridge or a Grado. I have never used a Soundsmith cartridge so I can't say for sure but I suspect them also. 

Actually I still quite don't know HOW it really happened, but that very front, squeezed flat part of the alu cantilever, where the stylus is inserted, of my gorgeous sounding SURE V15 III MR... alu cantilever snapped or just fell off during simple foreward cleaning strokes of my stylus brush.
It broke off exactly by the fold/transition line from the tubular to the squeezed flat part. 
I do have a suspicion, that it might have been helped by corrosion of the aluminium, it looked darkish grey, not the usual more silverish colour. 
Has anyone ever experienced such a thing at all?
Michélle 

I've never damaged a cartridge that way.  Nothing gets close to the stylus, except for stylus cleaning tools.  I would never use a perimeter clamp/weight because of the inconvenience and risk of accidentally hitting the stylus.  

I don't have to worry about accidentally putting the needle down on a moving platter, or accidentally hitting the arm off of its rest because the arm is always cued up when not in play.  I cue up at the end of the record and only cue down when it comes time to play the record.  

I like cartridges with the stylus sticking out in front because they are much easier to clean and to align properly.  

This is Stanton/Pickering typical aluminum cantilever with press-fit nude Stereohedron stylus tip. This excellent profile has been used by Stanton/Pickering ONLY on upper high quality models such as 881 and higher models up to 981 in Stanton line, and on XSV3000 and higher up to 7500 in Pickering line.

In the late 1940’s Mr. Stanton’s slide-in stylus made it possible for users to replace a needle assembly when it wore out, instead of having to send it back to the factory. Audiophiles snapped them up for home use, and the invention became one of the basics in phonograph cartridge design.

Pickering was first founded in 1946 by Mr.Norman Pickering, noted violinist, instrument designer, and medical equipment designer. His factory manager was none other than Walter Stanton, who later went out on his own. By 1960, Mr.Stanton bought out Mr.Pickering.

I was on the phone, long and very important conversation. I was walking around my racks in the listening room while i was on the phone, and decided to clean some dust on my custom made teak wood plinth. A very expensive High-End cartridge was locked on my EPA-100 tonearm but stylus guard was removed. Cleaning the dust under tonearm wand cost me nearly $4k that day. Cantilever was snapped out and i could not even find it anywhere on the floor :( 

Even with very special discount from the distributor exchange of my broken MC to a brand new MC was way too much for me. it was a cartridge with sealed body and manufacturer in Japan never refurbish them, exchange to a new one is what they offering to their customers via distributors only. 

I realized how far we can go to buy things and to pay nearly 60% of retail price again to get new one instead of the broken one officially. 

It was a challenge for me to start looking for vintage High-End.

Prior to that i tried several vintage cartridges, i quickly realized that refurbished cartridges with aftermarket (third party) parts is the worst solution even for vintage cartridges, so i definitely wouldn't even try with that new ultra high-end MC, original cantilever was very special (but sadly fell off). 

Reading audiogon i realized how many audiophiles are happy with rare cartridges (MM, MI or MC) from the golden age of analog. I decided to try some of them. When i bought some rare ones i was so happy, it was better and cheaper than my ex ultra high-end LOMC. For the price i could pay just for 1 new cartridge i bought many vintage MM (and i was so impressed). Then i bought some vintage MC and now i know for sure where i can find my personal audio nirvana without breaking the bank. 

Because of that accident with my ultra high-end cartridge i discovered the whole world of exceptional vintage MM and MC from the 70's/80's (i prefer to buy NOS samples).