Key Takeaway
To make a Brush in Minecraft, place a Feather, a Copper Ingot, and a Stick on a Crafting Table in a vertical line. The Feather must be at the top, the Copper Ingot in the middle, and the Stick at the bottom.
Brushes allow you to dust through Suspicious Sand and Suspicious Gravel, which lets you find rare and sometimes unique loot—such as Sniffer Eggs, Pottery Sherds, and Armor Trims.
Some items are only obtainable from Suspicious Sand and Suspicious Gravel. Due to the dubious debris’ unyielding nature, you can’t get the goods from them by using conventional tools—that makes them drop nothing when broken. You’ll need a Brush in Minecraft to uncover loot hidden in such blocks.
Table Of Contents
What You Need to Craft a Brush in Minecraft
You need three items to craft a Brush in Minecraft: one Feather, one Copper Ingot, and one Stick. Once you have all three components, arrange them in a vertical line on a Crafting Table. The Feather goes at the top, the Copper Ingot in the middle, and the Stick at the bottom.
Furthermore, you can combine two partially damaged Brushes to create one with more durability. Doing so is possible both on a Crafting Table and in your inventory’s 2×2 crafting grid. When you combine two Brushes this way, the Brush you create will have the combined durability of the two merged Brushes plus an extra 5%.
How to Get Feathers
The easiest way to get Feathers is to kill a Chicken. These birds are common, so it won’t take long to find them if you’re in a biome with Grass Blocks (except Meadows, in which case Chickens won’t spawn). You can breed Chickens to start a Feather farm.
Parrots also drop Feathers when killed. However, this avian mob is much rarer, only spawning in variants of the Jungle biome. Taming a Parrot can get you a talkative friend, but you cannot breed them like you can Chickens—so a Feather farm here is out of the question.
If you have a tamed Cat, they’ll sometimes bring you a Feather as a morning gift. There’s a 70% chance that your feline friend will give you a morning gift, and out of this percentage there’s about a 16% chance that said gift will be a Feather.
The above three methods are the best ways to get Feathers quickly and easily; however, there are others:
- Foxes sometimes drop a Feather when killed
- Instead of killing it, you can drop food near a Fox to cause it to drop what it’s holding—which may be a Feather
- The Map Chest of Shipwrecks has a 60% chance of having one to five Feathers
- In any type of Village, Fletcher’s Chests have about a 55% chance of having one to three Feathers
- Within Plains Villages, regular house Chests have just over a 12% chance of having one Feather
How to Get Copper Ingots
You need to smelt Raw Copper in a Furnace to craft a Copper Ingot. To get Raw Copper, you must mine Copper Ore blocks with a Stone Pickaxe or better. When you do, a Copper Ore block drops somewhere between two to five Raw Copper. Copper Ore is fairly common and spawns between layers -16 and 112—most frequently on layers 47 and 48. Furthermore, Copper Ore spawns about 16 times per chunk in groups ranging from 1 to 52.
Once you’ve got some Raw Copper, create a Furnace with nine blocks of Cobblestone: place these nine Cobblestone blocks in a ring on a Crafting Table. Then, place the Furnace and put one or more pieces of fuel (Coal, Charcoal, Wood, etc.) in the bottom slot. Following this, put some Raw Copper in the top slot and wait until the white arrow fills up. Afterward, one Copper Ingot appears in the rightmost slot for every Raw Copper you smelt.
Alternatively, you can farm Drowned (the swimming blue Zombies) for Copper Ingots. Each slain Drowned has an 11% chance to drop one Copper Ingot. Drown can be found in most Ocean and River biomes.
How to Get Sticks
Sticks are one of the most basic items you can craft—all you need is two Wood Planks. Any type of Wood will do! Place two Wood Planks—stacked vertically—on a Crafting Table (or in your inventory crafting grid) and you’ll get four Sticks.
The same as above can be done with two pieces of Bamboo; however, you’ll only get one Stick through this method.
The aforementioned means are the best ways to get Sticks, but there are others:
- Sticks can sometimes be reeled in as junk when you go fishing
- Dead Bushes drop zero to two Sticks when broken
- Leaf Blocks have a 2% chance of dropping one to two sticks when broken
- Witches drop zero to six Sticks when killed
- Boats and Boats With Chests drop exactly two Sticks when they fall from the following distances and hit the ground:
- 12 blocks
- 13 blocks
- 49 blocks
- 51 blocks
- 111 blocks
- 114 blocks
- 198 blocks
- 202 blocks
- 310 blocks
- 315 blocks
- In Java Edition, Bonus Chests have just over a 67% chance to have one to twelve Sticks (100% chance in Bedrock Edition)
- Suspicious Sand blocks in Desert Wells have a 12.5% chance to give you one Stick
- Toolsmith’s Chests have a 90% chance of having one to three Sticks in any type of Village
- Fletcher’s Chests have a slightly under 60% chance of having one to three Sticks in any type of Village
- Cartographer’s Chests have a bit above a 26% chance of having one to two Sticks in any type of Village (Java Edition-only)
What a Brush Is Used for In Minecraft
As of writing this, a Brush in Minecraft is only used for getting items from Suspicious Sand and Suspicious Gravel. Hold down the right mouse button (on PC) to use a Brush on a block. However, keep in mind that this does nothing unless used on Suspicious Sand or Suspicious Gravel.
When you Brush a Suspicious Block, an item emerges after about five seconds of continuous brushing. Afterward, the item drops and the Suspicious Block turns into a normal version of whatever type it is; Suspicious Sand turns into Sand and Suspicious Gravel turns into Gravel.
How to Find Suspicious Blocks
Suspicious Blocks only spawn near the following structures:
- Trail Ruins
- Cold Ocean Ruins
- Warm Ocean Ruins
- Desert Temples
- Desert Wells
While they look very similar to regular Sand and Gravel blocks, there’s one key difference between the mundane variety and Suspicious Blocks: the latter has dark spots.
With that said, it’s hard to notice such a subtle detail in the dark. For this reason, we recommend that you only search for Suspicious Blocks during the day or if you have access to lots of light-emitting items—such as Torches and Lanterns.
Unique Items You Can Get Only by Brushing Suspicious Blocks
Instead of giving you an exhaustive list of every item you can get from Suspicious Blocks near every type of structure, we’ll outline only the unique goods. In terms of such loot, only the Music Disc (Relic), Sniffer Eggs, Armor Trims with designs, and Pottery Sherds with designs are exclusively found via Suspicious Block dusting.
- Music Disc (Relic) has approximately an 8% chance of being found in Suspicious Blocks exclusively near Trail Ruins.
- Sniffer Eggs have close to a 7% chance of being uncovered from Suspicious Blocks solely in Warm Ocean Ruins.
- Armor Trims with designs can be obtained by dusting the Suspicious Blocks only around Trail Ruins.
- Pottery Sherds with designs are gained by dusting the Suspicious Blocks near the following structures:
- Trail Ruins
- Cold Ocean Ruins
- Warm Ocean Ruins
- Desert Temples
- Desert Wells
Once you’ve got a Brush in Minecraft, you can begin dusting any and all Suspicious Blocks you locate! In the process, you may find a new friend—a Sniffer. However, you might need a bit of help figuring out what a Sniffer actually does in-game.
