Sorry, couldn't resist the word play. I'm experimenting with Rolls Razor strop dressing, which is a coarse FeOx grease based strop dressing, and I want to compare it to Turtle Wax brand rubbing compound. What's the best way to objectively compare the two? Sand some steel and see how long it takes to polish out the scratches?
As long as you're comparing apples to apples - that is, polishing the same thing with both items, same amount of time, same type of applicator, same polishing technique. Seems pretty straight forward; what do the results render?
I'll find out in a week or so. Maybe. One of the things about strops, the grit sticks to it, physically gets embedded in the leather. Just that alone could skew the results in a completely different direction than a polishing test. A polishing test is a decent spot to start though.