How to Craft Bow in Minecraft

Bow in Minecraft, drawn from the game's own item texture. Ranged combat.

The bill for a Bow is 3 Sticks and 3 String, and the work happens at a Crafting Table. Read it row by row: a Stick in the middle column and String in the right column, then a Stick in the left column and String in the right column, then a Stick in the middle column and String in the right column. The grid returns 1 Bow. One lasts 384 uses.

Bow Item ID and Give Command

The item ID for Bow is minecraft:bow. In commands the namespace may be left off, so bow works too. Checked against Minecraft Java 26.2.

Give yourself one: /give @p bow
Give several at once: /give @p bow 5
Give it to a named player: /give Steve bow 1

Cheats have to be on for Bow to appear this way, and the same command works on Bedrock Edition, where the name is written the same.

Repairing Bow

A used Bow still has value: put two together on an anvil and their remaining durability adds up, enchantments included.

Two worn ones can also be merged on a grindstone. That is the cheaper route and it asks no levels, but it strips every enchantment off, so it suits a plain Bow rather than one you have invested in.

The cheapest fix of all is Mending, which Bow accepts. Experience you collect goes into the tool rather than your level bar, and it keeps itself topped up.

Overview

The Bow fires arrows for ranged combat. Fully charged shots deal up to 9 damage. It has 384 durability. Bow uses a shaped recipe: the ingredients only work in the pattern shown.

The bow was already in the game in Minecraft Beta 1.0, the oldest release with an English language file to read, so this recipe is at least that old.

The materials come together from a few sources: you will be working with stick (craft from planks) and string (kill spiders).

The Full Stack Sum

Counted per stack: 64 sticks, 21 crafts, 21 bows. You supply 63 string to go with it. The box keeps 1 stick.

Materials Needed

Item	Amount	Where to Find
StickStick	3x	Craft from planks
StringString	3x	Kill spiders

Gather 3x Stick (craft from planks) and 3x String (kill spiders), then take the lot to a Crafting Table.

The Full Chain

2 Planks makes 4 Stick, the one part of this you craft rather than gather. All in: 3 String and 2 Planks.

1
2Stick4Stick
2
BowBowthis page

Gather this first

3String2Planks

Step-by-Step Instructions

1
Stick3x Stick
2
String3x String
3
Bow

Minecraft crafting recipe for Bow: 3 x Stick, 3 x String in a crafting table, making 1 Bow.

Tips & Notes

Line up 3x Stick and 3x String before you open the Crafting Table. Stick: craft from planks.

Uses for Bow

Ranged combat
Shooting arrows at enemies

What Bow Goes Into

One other recipe on this site lists Bow as an ingredient.

DispenserCrafting Table

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

Frequently Asked Questions

What do I need to craft a Bow in Minecraft?

Bring 3 Sticks and 3 String to a Crafting Table and you can make a Bow. Copy the grid above cell for cell, and one craft produces one Bow.

What do you need to make a Bow from scratch?

Counting all the way down, a Bow comes to 3 String and 2 Planks, spread over 2 crafts.

What can you make with Bow?

Bow is an ingredient in 1 other recipe on this site, including Dispenser. The section above links to each of them.

Can you craft a Bow without a crafting table?

No, a Bow needs a crafting table. It is laid out as three Sticks and three String filling the right column, and that takes 3 rows, more than the 2x2 grid in your inventory can hold.

Where do you find the materials for a Bow?

The parts of a Bow do not all come from one place. Stick: craft from planks. String: kill spiders.

How many Bows do you get from one craft?

The Bow recipe makes one Bow per craft.

What is the item ID for Bow in Minecraft?

Bow is registered as minecraft:bow. Commands accept the short form bow as well, and Bedrock spells it the same. Checked against Java 26.2.

What is the give command for Bow?

The command for Bow is /give @p bow, with an optional count after it. It only runs with cheats enabled.

What enchantments can you put on a Bow?

A Bow takes 7 enchantments: Power, Punch, Flame, Infinity, Unbreaking, Mending and Curse of Vanishing. An enchanting table or an anvil can apply them.

Is the Bow recipe the same in Java and Bedrock Edition?

It is the same recipe on both: 3 Sticks and 3 String at a Crafting Table gives you a Bow, in the layout shown above, one at a time.

What version of Minecraft added the Bow?

The bow was older than we can prove: already there in Minecraft Beta 1.0, and that is the oldest language file Mojang still publishes, so the trail simply stops. The Bow recipe above matches the current release.

Sources

Grid, ingredients and yield: 3 Sticks and 3 String in, 1 Bow out, Crafting Table. Java 26.2, 17 August 2026.
That Bedrock agrees: Bedrock 1.26.40.05, same 2 ingredients.
How far back it goes: Present in Minecraft Java Beta 1.0, the oldest release that exists to check. From all 163 released Java clients, rd-132211 to 26.2.
That the ingredients come back: What drops, what villagers trade and what farms regrow in Minecraft Java, followed through the recipes to see what those ingredients can be turned into.
Stack size, durability, enchantments, burn time: The Astroworld Items Database, built from the same jar.
The recipe book unlock: What unlocks it in the recipe book. Java 26.2.
The stack sum: Counted, not played: 1 Bow per craft against the stack size.

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