There is, of course, a problem then with the compass. When unLocke asked Richard in 2007 if he still had the compass, Richard told him it was a little rusty. If that's the case, it's going to continue to age and rust until there's no longer any compass.
Ah, OK. I'd forgotten that he said that, and that he specifically asked him to give Locke *that* compass. If so, that proves he wasn't just giving him a future version of a compass that 1954 Richard already had, and the whole thing doesn't make sense.
It doesn't have to make sense, it's cool. At least I'm sure thats what the writer's thought when they wrote it. But heck, for all we know traveling through time might polish and fix up metal objects. So the compass keeps getting repaired.