It is a good idea to make the contact as clean and smooth as possible, the above ideas are good. I recall that Andy Bouwman also sands the pins in the tubes that he sells.
cleaning the pins of NOS tubes...bad idea?
I am a tube noob. Just bought my first set of NOS tubes. I use Kontak, Deoxit, ProGold and the like on the connectors on my cables. I notice that the pins of most NOS tubes show significant oxidation. So...is it a good idea to use Kontak or the like on them, or do you just leave them alone?