Options for ridding records of static electricity


I am getting back into vinyl, listening to “garage sale” finds and also new albums that I have been picking up. I have a nice old Linn Sondek LP12 with the felt mat. Every time I go to remove a record from the spindle or flip the record, static electricity grabs the felt mat and it sticks like a magnet. I have to very carefully flip the felt mat at the corner with my finger but one of these times I’m going to slip and smudge or scratch a record. 

I’ve seen the “Milty Zerostat” and seem to remember this product from back in the day. I see that it is still made and there is one eBay vendor that has them for $77. Is this my best bet? I thought Michael Fremor talked about these in one of his videos. 

Are there other products I should look at to reduce static electricity on my records? Thanks for any help you can give.
masi61
I use a felt mat.....and have practically zero issues with static.  But I'm always barefoot around the house.  So I'm always grounded......seems to work for me.
1) Get rid of the felt mat, replace it with rubber or cork, there are many options.

2) Rinse your records under the tap, such that the record, the water stream running on to the record and the metal spout of the faucet makes ONE UNBROKEN electrical contact.

3) After 2 above, air dry your record with no cloth friction whatsoever.

Same massive and annoying static issues with my Rega P10 using their felt mat. I called them about other options and their technician advised me strongly to avoid using after market brands. He said the mat was specifically constructed for that TT to achieve optimal SQ and any other option could negatively impact sound quality.

I didn’t ask about solutions while using the existing mat and he didn’t offer up any so I called back today but the guy who answered said everyone is on holiday and to call back next Tuesday so I will do that and ask about double-sided tape like the Linn.

Meanwhile and regardless, Sokogear’s Rega dealer recommended the Washi Japanese paper by Teac. $30 on amazon and very cool looking. So Im currently using that - it’s 1mm thick vs. 3mm I think on the rega pad. Zero zilch nada static. Problem fixed 100 percent and i don’t notice any sonic differences, good or bad.
Here you go Lewm  https://thelastfactory.com/last-record-preservative/how-do-i-get-rid-of-static-on-vinyl-records-i-e-static-cling/ and Antinin. Lewm you may be right about the probe. I have a very fast meter with a very high impedance. Tonight I will connect the negative lead to house ground and see if I can measure it. 
Lewm I have to say you have excellent taste in loudspeakers. Have you tried subwoofers yet? What are you using to drive them?
The other theory as to how static forms on records is that the spinning record creates "friction" with air generating the charge. This is unlikely as the formation of a static electric charge requires "intimate" contact between two objects at opposite ends of the triboelectric series. Intimate contact such as the belt in a Van De Graaff generator or the stylus in the groove. You can not generate a static charge by waving your feet in the air but you can rubbing your feet on carpet with all your weight on them. Tonight I will put a neutral record on the turntable and let it spin while I check out the news and see if it develops a charge. 
In surfing the internet on this subject I have noted that there are a plethora of theories and opinions on the generation and management of static electricity on records. They can not all be right. Once you understand how the static electricity is formed all you need is logic to form a management plan. It is not rocket science and I am not a rocket scientist. Static is formed by the stylus rubbing the groove stealing the electrons from air. Here is a decent general article.  https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/static-science-how-well-do-different-materials-make-static-electricity/#:~:text=Static%20electricity%20can%20be%20created,to%20produce%20a%20static%20charge.
Antinin, great article with some aspects I disagree with. He  "oddly" dismisses the sorce of static as the rubbing stylus. As measured by who and under what circumstances.The Last Factory also disagrees with this analysis. There are a number of ways you can detect static. Take a neutral record and play it. You will notice a static charge develops. Something about playing a record developes static electricity. Are there circumstances that a charge won't develop? Perhaps high humidity, An arm or turntable grounded in a certain way, a conductive cartridge body that runs very close to the record. Obviously I do not know for sure. Tonight I am going to let a record just spin and see what happens. Put a neutral record in a paper sleeve and nothing will happen. But, if you put a charged record into a paper sleeve the paper will cling to the record and you will even get snapping and maybe even shocked as you pull it out. This is why people think that paper sleeves cause static under normal circumstances. If you take a paper sleeve and rub it briskly over the record you can develop a nice charge and ruin the record in the process.
This is an experiment I have done. My records come off the turntable discharged and the ones still in paper sleeves never develop a static charge.
He talks about dust and confirms most of what I have said. He "oddly" thinks you need a longer stylus shank to prevent clogging the stylus. Today we use very tiny short styli without any trouble what so ever. This improves tracking and frequency response by lowering the effective mass of the assembly.  Lint (large fiber) is easy to remove from a record It is the smaller particles and pollution that are the real problem in terms of record wear. Most people deal with this with various record cleaning devises and methods. I deal with it my not letting my records get dirty in the first place. I never put anything on my records. All I do is the conductive sweep arm and a dust cover.
 
Antinn, another great old article. I can only calculate the PSI the vinyl is subjected to under static conditions which I probably should have mentioned. Playing a record is not a static process (no pun intended) it is a dynamic one with the stylus wiggling all over the place subjecting the vinyl to variations in pressure I certainly have no way of determining. I was Just trying to give everyone the basic picture that the pressure is considerable, in the order of tens of thousands of pounds per square inch. The article mention 10 X 10 to the forth power. That would be 100,000 PSI. But their contact patches were much smaller.
This article was written when we were still using only spherical styli. He mentions 10 gram VTF! Obviously we have advanced consideraby since then. Our styli are tiny in comparison and undoubtedly have a much higher polish. The contact patch with our special shapes is much higher lowering the PSI the vinyl is subjected to and increasing the frequency response to as high as 100 kHz. 30,000 PSI is certainly in the ballpark.
Anyway, thanx for pulling up these articles. They are fun to read given their age and most of these concepts remain true to this day.