Dirt on my stylus.....what to do?

I've got and use the Record Research #9 fluid that Albert recommended. I purchased this after talking to Josh at Music Direct. He told me that out of all of the vinyl products that they sell and the others that they have tried out, he likes this the best. However, i must state that this was before they started selling the Zerodust "goo", so i don't know how that fits into the equation.

As to the stylus brush to use, the RR #9 comes with a little brush that reminds me of a smaller and slightly softer bristled version of the Discwasher SC-1 stylus cleaning brush. While i like and use the Discwasher brush for one of my TT's and i think that it is "neat" that it comes with a mirror for better stylus viewing in tough spots ( not all "arms" allow easy viewing of the stylus ), i have always thought that the bristles were a bit TOO stiff. Sean
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Why pay $70 for Zerodust when you can get silly putty for $3.00? I'm not kidding. My Linn dealer recommended it to me and it works great. Just let the stylus rest under its own weight on a little ball of silly putty and then lift it off. It works great.

Silly Putty is a Polymer compound. Polymer compounds contain petroluem products, the solvent within the solid base. It is the solvent action that will lift newsprint. This petroleum product will not evaporate, so the film is there to stay. Common sense tells me that the film would attract dust and also add mass to the stylus. (Perhaps not a good thing).

Another issue that I have with polymer based stylus cleaners is that they may subject the cartridge to negative forces that may cause premature wear. How often does your stylus stick to the record surface? I'm reminded of cutting a solid wire without wire cutters. You can simply wiggle the wire back and forth, and eventually it will break on the stress point. I'm not certain that this will indeed create a fracture point on the shaft, but with the price of cartridges today, I'm not willing to take the chance. I've had my boot get stuck in the mud in the past ...

Here'a a current ebay auction link for the extremephono.com cleaner:
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=1387169543

Jacks,
OK, although the silly putty works fine for me (to my ear), your points are certainly worth consideration. But the question is still: Why pay $70 for zerodust when you can get silly putty for $3? You will note that www.extremephono.com describes zerodust as a polymer compound as well.