Emery Cloth: Graded Grit Between a Make Coat and a Size Coat

Emery cloth is a coated abrasive: grains of emery, a natural abrasive used for polishing metal, glued to one face of a cloth backing. Cloth is chosen over paper where durability matters. The grit is graded to one size, glued down with a make coat, and locked in with a second size coat. Hide glue is the traditional adhesive; it does not stand the heat of machine sanding and is not waterproof, so resin is used where that matters. Closed-coat cloth has 90–95% of its face covered with grain, open-coat 50–70%, which clogs less on soft materials.