Metal "whiskers" on cartridge body

This modified Denon is "the cats meow". It's up there with the best carts I've heard. I thought about trying to blow them off with compressed air, but thought better of it, with concerns of blowing a small piece of ferrite metal somewhere it shouldn't be, and ruining my best cartridge.

By the way, I don't have a cat, I'm wondering how a cat could have anything to do with the metal on my cartridge.

The cantilever is white saphire, and non-magnetic. After thinking on this last night, I may try using a bit of masking tape to try to remove the "whiskers", very carefully, of course.

I don't think it'll be possible to make a picture, I used a 10x loupe and strong LED lighting to see this, my old Sony digital camera isn't capable of this level of resolution.

Thanks all, I'll let you know how it all shakes out.
Regards,
Dan

Psag's idea sound like a likely source of the whiskers. I haven't tried anything yet, I'm enjoying too much music to take the time to address "shaving" my cartridge.

Regards,
Dan

Doug, I do play RCA "Shaded Dog" records from time to time, but unless Nipper is "The Dog of Steel", it's perhaps an unlikely source.

Regards,
Dan