:\ eh.. I dunno what rank 1 items you have been compounding but you will not "always" get back a rank 1.

Rank 1s i use are;
Copper ores
Coal Ores
Barley
Steam buns
wooden fish hook
wodden gear/cogs
sea water

with all that they will always rank up to 2 or higher some of them only have rank 3 or 5 so you'll always get a +2 or +4 jump. especially with the coal, barley and steam buns.

with this i can get my junior to a +10 in a couple hours.

So unless you are compounding only muck or something then not all rank 1s will ALWAYS be get back rank 1.

clay also only turns into clay and will stay rank 2 certain items onlu has its own type.

but you are right when about if you compund a rank 1 with another items. it works best when the item you have is rank 1 atleast with somthing else preferably another rank 1 because that rank 1 has a chance to rank up. thats how it becomes a success. do not put muck/sea salt or clay fisrt because they will always only become just that. when using muck use it second and when using clay... well its usually best to just not use clay at all unless you compound it with a diffent rank 2 item that's not clay based and again put the clay second.

aniways thank you for this =3 i'm sure others will find it useful when trying to lvl alchemy.