If you’re looking to get into enchanting and plan on using your tools a lot, then a grindstone is the block you need to learn how to make.
This block isn’t just a villager job site. It can be used to fix your worn down tools and to disenchant them if you wish to use them for something else.
In this article, we’ll look at how to make a grindstone in Minecraft and how you can use one efficiently, too.
Minecraft Grindstone Recipe
- 2 sticks
- 2 wooden plank blocks (any)
- 1 stone slab
For a grindstone recipe you need pretty basic materials that you can get early on in the game. The wooden plank blocks can be mixed and don’t have to be identical, either.
This recipe is enough for a single grindstone and it is worth the effort to make the block early on in the game.
To make it arrange the ingredients on a crafting table like so:
Finding a Grindstone
Grindstones can easily be found in most villages.
They spawn as part of a weaponsmith’s shelter, which is also the type of job they offer to unemployed villagers.
To mine a grindstone, simply use a wooden grade pickaxe or higher.
How to Use
Once you’ve placed a grindstone down, you can use it by right clicking on it. Similarly to other functional blocks, it will have its own window and slots where you can place your items.
There are three slots on the GUI that appear inside the grindstone.
In the two slots on the left you can place an enchanted item in order to disenchant it.
Disenchanting an item will not give you the enchantment.
Once disenchanted the enchantment will be completely gone. You will gain a little bit of experience and be left with a regular item.
Disenchanting does not apply to curses. They can’t be removed from items.
The grindstone can also be used to repair worn down tools and weapons.
Placing two of the same item in the two slots will give you that same item, with their combined durability and an additional 5% to it. The two items will be consumed in the process.
Be careful when using the grindstone to repair your items. If any of them are enchanted, the grindstone will destroy the enchantment.
It is best to use the grindstone for your typical non-enchanted tools.
Making a Villager Job Site
When placed down, if there are any unemployed villagers, the grindstone will grant them the weaponsmith profession.
A weaponsmith villager will trade you axes, swords, and their enchanted versions in return for emeralds or other items. The higher their level the better the enchantments.
They can also trade a bell used to warn villagers about incoming danger, ensuring that they run into their homes and hide.
If you don’t have unemployed villagers, then you may need to spawn more of them.
What to Do Next
A problem that many can have with the grindstone is that it isn’t all that useful long-term, especially in the end game.
By then, most of your items will likely be enchanted and you will want to keep those enchantments as long as possible.
This is when you would likely want to swap your grindstone out for an anvil.
An anvil not only repairs items without destroying the enchantments on them, but it can also combine the enchantments of two items that you are repairing. It also allows you to use an enchanted book on an item.
