The crafting recipe for making a Pickaxe in Minecraft is easy to learn and remember. Simply make a “T” on a Crafting Table with the right components and you’ll have a Pickaxe in no time.
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What You Need to Make a Pickaxe
You can make different kinds of Pickaxes depending on what material you use for the head of the tool. For example, to make a Wooden Pickaxe, you will need 3 Wood Planks. In addition to the 3 blocks of the “head material”, you will need 2 Sticks for the handle. Arrange the ingredients on the Crafting Table in a “T” shape. Place the 3 blocks of head material into the top row and then fill up the rest of the central column with the 2 Sticks. This crafting recipe will work for everything except for a Netherite Pickaxe, as this specific tool requires a different crafting method.
List of All the Kinds of Pickaxes You Can Make
- Wood
- Stone
- Iron
- Gold
- Diamond
- Netherite
How to Make a Netherite Pickaxe
Unfortunately, you can’t make a Netherite Pickaxe from 3 Netherite Ingots and 2 Sticks. You must upgrade a Diamond Pickaxe into a Netherite Pickaxe by using a Smithing Table. These utility blocks are the job site blocks for Toolsmith Villagers, so you can sometimes find them in Villages. You can also craft them yourself from 4 Wood Planks and 2 Iron Ingots. Place the 4 Wood Planks in a square upon a Crafting Table and then put the 2 Iron Ingots above this square.
After you place the Smithing Table, interact with it and put a Diamond Pickaxe onto the left slot. After that, place 1 Netherite Ingot onto the middle slot and you will get a Netherite Pickaxe out of the right slot.
Fun Fact About Making Stone Pickaxes
You can use any kind of Stone block in any combination to make the head of a Stone Pickaxe in the Java Edition of Minecraft. For example, you can use 1 Cobblestone, 1 Cobbled Deepslate, and 1 Blackstone, along with 2 Sticks for the handle, to make a Stone Pickaxe.
It’s still possible for you to make Stone Pickaxes with materials other than Cobblestone in the Bedrock Edition, however, you can’t mix and match the type of Stone blocks used. Using different kinds of Stone to make a Stone Pickaxe doesn’t change how it looks or alter its stats.
Where to Find Pickaxes
It’s possible for a Pickaxe to appear as loot in the Chest of a naturally-generated structure at varying odds. Here’s a breakdown of the different kinds of Pickaxes that you can find as loot and where you’re likely to encounter them:
- Stronghold Storeroom Chests have a 4% chance to contain an Iron Pickaxe
- Mineshaft Chests have a 7% chance to contain an Iron Pickaxe
- Stronghold Altar Chests have a 12.1% chance to contain an Iron Pickaxe
- Village Weaponsmith’s Chests have a 25.6% chance to contain an Iron Pickaxe
- Village Toolsmith’s Chests have a 41.2% chance to contain an Iron Pickaxe
- End City Chests have a 13.3% chance to contain an Enchanted Iron Pickaxe
- Ruined Portal Chests have a 20.5% chance to contain an Enchanted Golden Pickaxe
- Bastion Remnant Chests have a 6.7% chance to contain an Enchanted Diamond Pickaxe
- End City Chests have a 13.3% chance to contain an Enchanted Diamond Pickaxe
- Bastion Remnant Hoglin Stable Chests have a 13.6% chance to contain an Enchanted Diamond Pickaxe
How to Enchant a Pickaxe
To enchant a Pickaxe, you will need an Enchanting Table or an Anvil and an Enchanted Book. For the first method with the Enchanting Table, you won’t have very many options for enchantments. When you put the Pickaxe you want to enchant onto an Enchanting Table, you will have a choice of 3 different enchantments, the levels of which are dependant on the number of Bookshelves nearby.
Alternatively, if you use an Anvil and an Enchanted Book, you can control exactly which enchantment you place on your desired Pickaxe. Putting a Pickaxe and an Enchanted Book onto the Anvil will let you combine them. The catch is that you need to either find or make an Enchanted Book with the enchantment that you want first. Books can be enchanted on an Enchanting Table in the same way that you can enchant tools. However, when you enchant a Book, keep in mind that you can get any kind of enchantment, not just ones for Pickaxes.
Every Enchantment You Can Put on a Pickaxe
- Efficiency: increases mining speed
- Fortune: increases the chances of item drops
- Silk Touch: causes the mined block to drop itself instead of its usual drop
- Unbreaking: gives the tool a chance to avoid using durability points when breaking a block
- Mending (Anvil-only): the enchanted tool will restore durability points when the player gains Experience when holding it or having it in their offhand
- Curse of Vanishing (Anvil-only): causes the enchanted tool to be destroyed when the player dies
