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How to Craft Iron Chain in Minecraft

Iron Chain in Minecraft, drawn from the game's own item texture. Hanging lanterns. The recipe first appears in the game's files in Minecraft 1.16.

Making an Iron Chain takes 2 Iron Nuggets and 1 Iron Ingot at a Crafting Table. The grid takes two Iron Nuggets stacked in the middle column and a single Iron Ingot in the centre cell. That comes out as 1 Iron Chain.

Iron Chain Item ID and Give Command

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

Give yourself one
/give @p iron_chain
Give a full stack of 64
/give @p iron_chain 64
Give it to a named player
/give Steve iron_chain 1

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

Overview

Iron Chains hang from ceilings and support lanterns, bells and other hanging blocks. This block was simply called Chain until Minecraft 26.2, which renamed it and added a Copper Chain alongside it. The recipe did not change. Iron Chain uses a shaped recipe: the ingredients only work in the pattern shown.

This recipe first appears in the game's own data files in Minecraft 1.16, and not in the release before it.

The materials come together from a few sources: you will be working with iron nugget (smelt iron items or craft from iron ingots) and iron ingot (smelt iron ore).

Per Stack

32 crafts drain a stack: 64 iron nuggets become 32 iron chains. The recipe wants 32 iron ingots beside it. Down to the last iron nuggets, nothing spare.

Materials Needed

ItemAmountWhere to Find
Iron NuggetIron NuggetIron Nugget2xSmelt iron items or craft from iron ingots
Iron IngotIron IngotIron Ingot1xSmelt iron ore

Collect 2x Iron Nugget (smelt iron items or craft from iron ingots) and Iron Ingot (smelt iron ore) first; the Crafting Table does the rest.

The Full Chain

Iron Ingot, then Iron Nugget, then the Iron Chain. All in: 2 Iron Ore.

  1. 1
    2Iron IngotIron Ingot2Iron IngotFurnace, repeat 2x
  2. 2
    Iron IngotIron IngotIron NuggetIron Nugget9Iron Nugget
  3. 3
    Iron ChainIron ChainIron Chainthis page

Gather this first

2Iron Ore

Step-by-Step Instructions

  1. 1

    Iron NuggetIron Nugget2x Iron Nugget

  2. 2

    Iron IngotIron IngotIron Ingot

  3. 3

    Iron Chain

Minecraft crafting recipe for Iron Chain: 2 x Iron Nugget, 1 x Iron Ingot in a crafting table, making 1 Iron Chain.

Tips & Notes

  • One craft costs 2x Iron Nugget and 1x Iron Ingot. Start with the Iron Nugget: smelt iron items or craft from iron ingots.

Uses for Iron Chain

  • Hanging lanterns
  • Decorative chains

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

Frequently Asked Questions

What do I need to craft an Iron Chain in Minecraft?
Bring 2 Iron Nuggets and 1 Iron Ingot to a Crafting Table and you can make an Iron Chain. Arrange them in the exact grid pattern shown above, and one craft produces one Iron Chain.
What do you need to make an Iron Chain from scratch?
Gather 2 Iron Ore and you have everything an Iron Chain needs. The in-between items are all crafted, 3 crafts from start to finish.
Can you craft an Iron Chain without a crafting table?
The inventory grid is too small for an Iron Chain, so you need a table. It is laid out as two Iron Nuggets stacked in the middle column and a single Iron Ingot in the centre cell, and that takes 3 rows, more than the 2x2 grid in your inventory can hold.
Where do you find the materials for an Iron Chain?
The parts of an Iron Chain do not all come from one place. Iron Nugget: smelt iron items or craft from iron ingots. Iron Ingot: smelt iron ore.
What should I craft first for an Iron Chain?
For an Iron Chain, start with an Iron Ingot: 2 Iron Ore gives you 2 Iron Ingots. After that the order is Iron Nugget, and then the Iron Chain itself.
How many Iron Chains do you get from one craft?
The Iron Chain recipe makes one Iron Chain per craft.
What is the item ID for Iron Chain in Minecraft?
Iron Chain is registered as minecraft:iron_chain. Commands accept the short form iron_chain as well, and Bedrock spells it the same. Checked against Java 26.2.
What is the give command for Iron Chain?
The command for Iron Chain is /give @p iron_chain. Add a number for more than one, so /give @p iron_chain 64 hands you a full stack, and it only runs with cheats enabled.
How many crafting steps does an Iron Chain take?
An Iron Chain takes 3 crafts once you count the parts: Iron Ingot and Iron Nugget, and then the Iron Chain. The chain section above walks through them in order.
How many Iron Chains fit in one stack?
An Iron Chain stacks to 64, so a full inventory of 36 slots holds 2304 of them.
What version of Minecraft added the Iron Chain?
The recipe for iron chain ships in Minecraft 1.16 and in none of the releases before it. Nothing about it has changed since: the pattern above is today's.

Sources

Grid, ingredients and yield
2 Iron Nuggets and 1 Iron Ingot in, 1 Iron Chain out, Crafting Table. Java 26.2, .
That Bedrock agrees
Bedrock 1.26.40.05, same 2 ingredients.
How far back it goes
Java 1.16 is the first release that knows this recipe at all. 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
The Astroworld Items Database, built from the same jar.
The stack sum
Counted, not played: 1 Iron Chain per craft against the stack size.

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