Interesting information from Analog Planet on Stylus Cleaner Onzow Zero Dust.

And wait just a minute here - how about the crap showing on the TOP side of cantilever? I doubt Onzow could be culpable for that. Maybe the pictured cartridge’s owner is a hairspray aficionado. I remember in the 80s I would go to steal my sister’s CDs from her room and they were completely encrusted in the crap - absolutely disgusting.

I’m pretty clean around my stuff. I don’t even use lotion for fear of that stuff getting on my gear. I suffer through the dry scaly skin every winter for the sake of analog :)

When I was with the Garrott Bros many years ago they showed me on an electron microscope the crap in most cartridges in for repair -

The most common and worst 2 problems were minute pieces of carbon fiber from either record or stylus brushes and gunk and residue from excessive use of fluids that would wick its up the cantilever and gum up the works - worst was Stylast & First.

worst was Stylast & First.

You could tell under the microscope what fluid it was?

No we had test samples

Atomic absorption will tell you also as well mass spectrometry.

we use it a lot doing analysis on fluids.