Emery cloth is often used to deburr, polish or size a wide range of cylindrical, tapered and threaded metal components while they are held in the rotating chuck jaws of a lathe.Emery cloth differs to sandpaper in several ways: Emery cloth has the abrasive glued to a cloth rather than paper, which makes it far sturdier and less inclined to tear in use. Emery cloth uses a form of corundum (or corundite) as the abrasive, rather than sand.
Emery cloth has a fabric backing, so it's generally sturdier than sandpaper. Sandpaper shreds, tears and breaks apart faster than emery cloth. Both emery cloth and sandpaper have varying grit options. Grit refers to the number of abrasive particles per inch of sandpaper or emery cloth.