You need iron ingots and a crafting table to make an anvil

An anvil in Minecraft is a block you craft from iron ingots and then place in your world. Once it's there, you use it to repair tools and weapons, combine enchantments, and rename items. You cannot make an anvil with a regular crafting table — you need to use a specific crafting recipe that produces the block itself, which you then place down like any other block.

The anvil is one of the most useful blocks in the game if you want your tools to last longer or combine the powers of two enchanted items into one. Without an anvil, a damaged diamond pickaxe is gone forever. With one, you can fix it by combining it with another diamond pickaxe, or add a new enchantment to it.

Key Takeaways

  • You need 31 iron ingots total: 27 for the anvil block itself and 4 more to smelt from raw iron if you're starting from scratch.
  • Craft the anvil on a regular crafting table using 3 iron blocks on top and 4 iron ingots on the bottom in a specific pattern.
  • Place the anvil in your world by selecting it in your inventory and right-clicking (or using your place button) on the ground.
  • The anvil will damage and eventually break after many uses, so you may need to craft more than one over a long game.

Gather 31 iron ingots before you start

The first step is collecting enough iron. You need 27 iron ingots to craft the anvil block itself. If you're mining raw iron ore, you'll need to smelt it in a furnace first — each raw iron ore becomes one iron ingot after smelting. You also want 4 extra iron ingots to craft into an iron block later, so aim for 31 total.

Iron ore is found underground from ground level down to Y-coordinate -64 (in newer versions) or down to bedrock in older versions. Use a stone pickaxe or better to mine it. If you don't have a furnace yet, craft one from 8 cobblestone blocks in a square pattern on your crafting table, leaving the center empty.

Craft 3 iron blocks from 27 of your ingots

Open your crafting table and place 9 iron ingots in a 3×3 square pattern. This makes 1 iron block. Repeat this two more times until you have 3 iron blocks total. You will use all 27 ingots this way (9 + 9 + 9 = 27).

Keep your 4 remaining iron ingots in your inventory — you'll need them for the anvil recipe itself.

Place the anvil recipe on your crafting table

Open your crafting table. The anvil recipe uses a 3×3 grid. Place your 3 iron blocks across the top row (left, center, right). Leave the middle row empty. In the bottom row, place 1 iron ingot on the left, 1 in the center, and 1 on the right. Leave the bottom-left and bottom-right corners empty.

The pattern looks like this: three iron blocks on top, one empty space, then three iron ingots on the bottom with an empty space in the middle of that row. When you place it correctly, the anvil will appear in the result box on the right side of the crafting table. Click it to add the anvil to your inventory.

Place the anvil in your world

Select the anvil from your inventory. Find a spot where you want to use it — ideally somewhere near your base or workshop. Right-click on the ground (or press your place button if you're on a controller or mobile) to place the anvil block down. It will land on the ground and you can now use it.

The anvil takes up a 1×1 space and is 1.5 blocks tall, so make sure you have enough headroom above it. You can place it on any solid block — stone, dirt, wood, or anything else.

Use your anvil to repair and rename items

Right-click the anvil (or press your use button) to open its interface. You'll see two input slots on the left and one output slot on the right. To repair a tool, place the damaged tool in the left slot and a matching tool or material in the second slot. For example, put a damaged iron pickaxe in the first slot and an iron ingot in the second slot, and the anvil will combine them.

You can also rename any item by placing it in the first slot and typing a new name in the text field that appears. The anvil will charge you experience levels for repairs and renames — the cost shows at the bottom of the interface. If you don't have enough experience, the output won't work.

Know that anvils wear out over time

Every time you use an anvil to repair something or combine enchantments, there's a small chance it will take damage. After many uses (usually 25 repairs or more), the anvil will crack and become a damaged anvil. After more uses, it becomes a heavily damaged anvil. Eventually it breaks completely and disappears.

This is normal and expected. When your anvil breaks, you simply craft another one using the same recipe. Many players keep extra iron ingots stored nearby so they can make a new anvil quickly when the old one wears out.

Frequently Asked Questions

Can I repair a tool without an anvil?

No. A regular crafting table cannot repair tools. The only other way to repair items is with a mending enchantment, which slowly repairs the tool as you gain experience. An anvil is the only block that lets you repair items on demand.

What if I don't have enough experience to use the anvil?

The anvil will show a red X instead of the repaired item if you don't have enough levels. You need to gain more experience by mining, fighting mobs, or smelting items. Come back to the anvil once your experience bar is higher.

Can I move an anvil after I place it?

Yes. Break it with any pickaxe and it will drop as an item you can pick up and place elsewhere. Without a pickaxe it takes much longer to break and may not drop the block at all.

Do I need an anvil to combine two enchanted items?

Yes. An anvil is the only way to combine enchantments from two items into one. For example, you can take a pickaxe with Efficiency and another pickaxe with Unbreaking and combine them into a single pickaxe with both enchantments.