What’s an Emery Board? Do You Need One?

Nail care can get pretty serious. There’s a lot to know about eating for nail health, caring for your cuticles, what irregularities to look out for, and more. Yet one small, often overlooked, but a revolutionary tool to consider is the emery board.

Tiny Tool of the Trade

If you’ve never heard of an emery board (you’re not alone), though likely, you’ve at least seen one. They are not dissimilar to and look a lot like a standard nail file. If you call them nail files, you’re correct.

They are a small strip of thin wood or card-like material coated with sandpaper. If you’re unfamiliar with sandpaper as a material, it is a mixture of corundum and magnetite that is used in powdered form as an abrasive.

The emery board contains this material pressed onto the wood to file or grind down nails in a gentle manner.

Not Just for Nails

Though their primary function is for nails, the emery board can be useful in some other surprising ways. For example, it can be used to file off glue stuck on your fingers or hands, or any other undesirable substance, including excess dead skin on feet.

It also works well as a sort of cleaning agent for rusty objects or small corners or spaces that are difficult to get to.

If you’re a gardener, an emery board can be used to rub the surface off of seeds for faster growing and ideal moisture absorption.

Why You Might Need One

Never underestimate simplicity. If you’ve got a foam or plastic nail file that’s not cutting (or shall we say trimming) it, an emery board might be just the replacement you need.

These babies though slightly flimsy, are durable and long-lasting, provided you place them somewhere they won’t slip under something and get lost. The possibilities are kind of endless. If you can imagine a use for the nail file, they are accessible and cheap enough to replace them in no time.

Do you want healthy and radiant nails at the expense of a mini emery board? Who doesn’t?