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How to Craft Anvil in Minecraft

The Anvil combines enchanted books with tools, renames items and repairs equipment. It degrades with use and eventually breaks.

Overview

The Anvil combines enchanted books with tools, renames items and repairs equipment. It degrades with use and eventually breaks. Anvil uses a shaped recipe, meaning the ingredients must sit in the exact pattern shown in the grid above; placing them in the wrong cells will not produce the item. A Crafting Table gives you the full 3x3 grid, which you need for any recipe larger than 2x2. You can craft one from four planks, and most bases keep one near the furnaces.

The recipe was added in Minecraft 1.4 and still works the same way in version 1.21. Each craft yields a single Anvil.

The materials come together from a few sources: you will be working with block of iron (craft from 9 iron ingots each) and iron ingot (smelt iron ore). If any of those are not already in your stores, gather them first, because the craft itself takes only a moment once everything is in the grid. With the ingredients on hand and a Crafting Table placed, Anvil is one of the quicker things to add to your inventory.

Crafting Recipe

Crafting Table
Block of IronBlock of ...
Block of IronBlock of ...
Block of IronBlock of ...
Iron IngotIron Ingo...
Iron IngotIron Ingo...
Iron IngotIron Ingo...
Iron IngotIron Ingo...
AnvilAnvilAnvil

Materials Needed

ItemAmountWhere to Find
Block of Iron3Craft from 9 iron ingots each
Iron Ingot4Smelt iron ore

To make Anvil you will gather 3x Block of Iron (craft from 9 iron ingots each) and 4x Iron Ingot (smelt iron ore). Lining these up before you open the Crafting Table saves a trip back to storage, especially if you plan to craft several at once.

Step-by-Step Instructions

  1. Open your Crafting Table to access the 3x3 crafting grid.
  2. Arrange the ingredients in the crafting grid following the pattern shown above.
  3. Place Block of Iron in: row 1, column 1; row 1, column 2; row 1, column 3.
  4. Place Iron Ingot in: row 2, column 2; row 3, column 1; row 3, column 2; row 3, column 3.
  5. Collect your Anvil from the output slot.

Tips & Notes

  • If the output slot stays empty, double-check the pattern against the grid above; a shaped recipe fails silently when even one ingredient is in the wrong cell.

Uses for Anvil

  • Renaming items
  • Combining enchantments
  • Repairing tools with materials

How Anvil Fits Your World

Building blocks are the backbone of construction, and the variant you choose changes both the look and the behaviour of a build. Stairs and slabs let you shape rooflines and half-steps, glass and stained glass let light through, and decorative stone and concrete give you a consistent palette for large projects. Many of these blocks are also craftable in bulk, which matters when a single build can swallow thousands of them. For Anvil specifically, that means it is most valuable for renaming items, combining enchantments, and repairing tools with materials.

View detailed item stats, durability and properties for Anvil on the Astroworld Items Database.

Frequently Asked Questions

What do I need to craft Anvil?
You need 3 Block of Iron, 4 Iron Ingot, made at a Crafting Table. Gather all of the materials first, then arrange them in the exact grid pattern shown above to produce the Anvil.
How many Anvil does the recipe produce?
The recipe produces a single Anvil per craft.
What is Anvil used for?
Anvil is used for several things: Renaming items; Combining enchantments; Repairing tools with materials.
What version of Minecraft added Anvil?
Anvil was added in Minecraft 1.4 and works the same way in the current 1.21 release. Recipes for it are identical across Java and Bedrock Edition unless noted otherwise.

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