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How to Craft Sponge in Minecraft

Sponge in Minecraft, drawn from the game's own block model. Absorbing water in a 7x7x7 area.

A Sponge comes out of a Furnace, not out of a crafting grid: 1 Wet Sponge in the top slot and fuel below it. What comes out is 1 Sponge.

Sponge Item ID and Give Command

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

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

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

Overview

Sponges absorb water in a 7x7x7 area around them. After absorbing water they become wet sponges that must be dried in a furnace. Sponge is produced by smelting in a Furnace rather than by arranging items in a grid.

The sponge 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 wet sponge (after a sponge absorbs water, or found in ocean monuments).

Stack Maths

A full stack of 64 wet sponges gives 64 sponges, across 64 crafts at 1 for 1. Nothing is wasted: craft 64 takes the rest.

Materials Needed

ItemAmountWhere to Find
Wet Sponge1xAfter a sponge absorbs water, or found in ocean monuments

Sponge needs Wet Sponge (after a sponge absorbs water, or found in ocean monuments), worked together at a Furnace.

Step-by-Step Instructions

  1. Open your Furnace interface.
  2. Place Wet Sponge in the top input slot.
  3. Add fuel (coal, charcoal, wood, etc.) to the bottom fuel slot.
  4. Wait for the smelting progress bar to complete. Collect your Sponge from the output slot.
Minecraft crafting recipe for Sponge: 1 x Wet Sponge in a furnace, making 1 Sponge.

Tips & Notes

  • One craft costs 1x Wet Sponge. Start with the Wet Sponge: after a sponge absorbs water, or found in ocean monuments.
  • One piece of coal or charcoal smelts eight of these, so a single coal covers 8 Sponge; a dried kelp block does twenty at a time and is renewable.

Uses for Sponge

  • Absorbing water in a 7x7x7 area

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

Frequently Asked Questions

What do I need to craft a Sponge in Minecraft?
1 Wet Sponge at a Furnace: that is the whole shopping list for a Sponge. Top slot takes the input, bottom slot the fuel, and one craft produces one Sponge.
Where do you find the materials for a Sponge?
Each ingredient in a Sponge has its own source. Wet Sponge: after a sponge absorbs water, or found in ocean monuments.
How many Sponges do you get from one craft?
The Sponge recipe makes one Sponge per craft.
What is the item ID for Sponge in Minecraft?
In Java 26.2 the Sponge goes by minecraft:sponge; sponge without the namespace does the same job in a command.
What is the give command for Sponge?
/give @p sponge gives you a Sponge. Swap @p for a player name to hand it to someone else, and put 64 on the end for a whole stack.
Is the Sponge recipe the same in Java and Bedrock Edition?
Java and Bedrock agree on a Sponge: both want 1 Wet Sponge at a Furnace in the layout above, and both give one at a time.
How do you unlock the Sponge recipe in the recipe book?
The Sponge recipe appears in your recipe book the moment you pick up a Wet Sponge in Java Edition. Until then it stays hidden, even though the craft itself works if you already know the grid.
What version of Minecraft added the Sponge?
The sponge 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. Today the game builds it from 1 Wet Sponge, as shown above.

Sources

Grid, ingredients and yield
1 Wet Sponge in, 1 Sponge out, Furnace. Java 26.2, .
That Bedrock agrees
Bedrock 1.26.40.05, same ingredient.
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.
Stack size
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 Sponge per craft against the stack size.

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