I need help identifying my polishing compounds.

[Sirnanigans]

I have 3 unknown polishing compounds. The colors are...

• Red (roughest)
• Black
• White (finest)

Here's an image of the compounds
...image too large to post locally, too lazy to edit. Also, color correction took a bit of red out. The brown looking compound is actually a rusty red color.

The progression doesn't seem to fit the standard colors, and the white has a higher sheen than my Formax Microfine Honing Compound (chromium oxide). It seems obvious that the white is an alumina compound, unless I am wrong about the Formax (product no. 12668) being chromium.

I doped some paper with each compound and tested them on my fingernail to figure out the progression. The red compound is unmistakably more coarse than the others, and leaves a sheen duller than my fingernail started. The red is also the most wax-like and seems softer when applying it to the paper. The black compound is about the same as the Formax chromium with no obvious difference in sheen (about the same sheen as a natural fingernail too). The white compound is certainly finer than the Formax, leaving a nearly glass smooth finish.

Can anyone help me determine what brand these are, or deduce what grit size they are? I would like to know this for my own reference before I construct my finishing (honing) strop.

P.S. Since I am here, I have one little question on the strop design... It's a two-sided strop with leather and denim on either side. Should I put the coarser compound on the tougher leather side to prevent edge rounding, or should I put the finer compound on the leather for some benefit to the final polish?