How to Make a Grindstone in Minecraft
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How to Make a Grindstone in Minecraft
Grindstone TipsThe Grindstone fills a specific and valuable niche in Minecraft’s crafting ecosystem — it’s the free-use alternative to the Anvil for tool maintenance, the XP recovery station for unwanted enchanted gear, and the reset button when an enchanting session goes wrong. New players often overlook it because its functions seem niche, but experienced players use it constantly as part of a broader enchanting workflow. The zero-XP repair property alone makes it worth placing in every base workstation — there’s no reason to spend Anvil XP on a damaged Pickaxe when the Grindstone repairs it for nothing. Pair it with the enchanting guide to understand the full tool-management loop from enchantment to repair to disenchantment and back, which is how endgame Minecraft players keep perfectly enchanted gear permanently without resource drain.FAQ
⚡ Quick Answer
How to Craft and Use a GrindstoneTo make a Grindstone place 2 Sticks in the top-left and top-right slots, 1 Stone Slab in the top-centre, and 2 Wooden Planks in the middle-left and middle-right slots of a crafting table. The Grindstone repairs tools and weapons by combining two damaged items of the same type, and removes all enchantments from items (except curses), returning some XP. It’s the Weaponsmith villager’s job site block.
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Gather the materials: Sticks, Stone Slab, and Planks. You need: 2× Sticks (craft from 2 Planks), 1× Stone Slab (craft 3 Stone Slabs from 3 Stone blocks in a row, or 3 Cobblestone Slabs from Cobblestone), and 2× any Wood Planks (Oak, Spruce, Birch, etc. — any type works). All materials are early-game basics — most players have everything needed within the first 10 minutes of a new world. Stone Slabs are the only slightly specific requirement: smelt Cobblestone into Stone first if you only have raw Cobblestone, then craft the Slab.
2
Craft the Grindstone at a crafting table. Open a crafting table and place: Top row — Stick (left), Stone Slab (centre), Stick (right). Middle row — Wood Plank (left), empty (centre), Wood Plank (right). Bottom row — empty. The Grindstone appears in the result slot. It looks like a stone wheel suspended between two wooden posts. Place it on any solid block surface — it’s a solid, interactive block that functions as both a utility station and a Weaponsmith villager job site block.
3
Repair tools by combining two damaged items. Right-click the Grindstone to open its interface — it has two input slots and one output slot. Place two damaged items of the same type and material (two Iron Swords, two Diamond Pickaxes, etc.) in the input slots. The output shows a single repaired item with combined durability plus a 5% bonus. This is cheaper than using an Anvil for basic repairs since it costs no XP — the Grindstone is free to use for repair. The trade-off: it strips all enchantments. Use the Grindstone for repairing unenchanted tools and for pre-enchanted tool cleanup; use an Anvil when you want to keep enchantments.
4
Remove enchantments to recover XP. Place a single enchanted item in either input slot of the Grindstone — the output shows the same item with all enchantments removed. Collect the item and you also receive XP orbs based on the value of the enchantments stripped. This is one of the best XP sources per item in the game: a fully enchanted Diamond Sword stripped in a Grindstone returns a significant XP amount. Use this to: disenchant unwanted items from mob drops or dungeon loot that have enchantments you don’t want; recycle bad enchantment combinations before re-enchanting at the enchanting table; and farm XP passively by collecting enchanted gear from mob grinders and grinding it for XP. Note: Curse of Binding and Curse of Vanishing cannot be removed by the Grindstone.
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Use it as a Weaponsmith villager job site block. Placing a Grindstone near an unemployed Villager assigns them the Weaponsmith profession. Weaponsmith villagers trade enchanted Swords and Axes for Emeralds — including enchanted Iron and Diamond weapons at higher trade levels. This makes the Grindstone useful not just as a utility tool but as a way to unlock a valuable Villager trade route. A Weaponsmith at Master level can trade an Enchanted Diamond Sword for 12–15 Emeralds — a strong mid-game trade for players with established villages and Emerald sources.
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Grindstone vs Anvil vs Enchanting Table — when to use each. Understanding when to use each station saves resources: Grindstone — free repairs (no XP cost) that remove enchantments; XP recovery from unwanted enchanted items. Use it for cheap tool repair and junk disenchanting. Anvil — repairs that preserve enchantments; combines enchanted books onto tools; renames items. Costs XP but keeps magic. Enchanting Table — applies new enchantments using Lapis Lazuli and XP. The workflow for a perfect tool: enchant at table → if result is bad, strip with Grindstone for XP → re-enchant. For combining best enchantments: use enchanted books from trading or loot → apply via Anvil. The Grindstone sits at the start and end of this loop as the reset and XP-recovery station.
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Grindstone repairs cost zero XP — use it for all non-enchanted tool maintenance: the Anvil charges XP for every repair and accumulates a «too expensive» penalty over time. The Grindstone never costs XP and never accumulates penalties — making it the correct choice for repairing any tool you don’t care about enchanting. Keep a Grindstone in your base workstation area alongside the Anvil and default to it for routine repairs.
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Farm XP by grinding enchanted mob drops: mob grinders produce large quantities of enchanted Bows, Swords, and Armour from Skeletons and Zombies. Strip all of them in the Grindstone rather than smelting for XP — enchanted items return significantly more XP per item than smelting raw materials. A session at a mob grinder followed by a Grindstone disenchant cycle is one of the fastest XP farming methods available without a dedicated XP farm build.
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Place a Grindstone in your starter base immediately — it’s one of the most useful early-game stations: the Grindstone requires no rare materials and unlocks tool repair from the very first night. Getting one set up before your first enchanting table means you have a free tool-repair option throughout the early game. It also seeds a Weaponsmith trade route if you have a village nearby.
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Grindstone cannot remove Curses — check before grinding: Curse of Binding (prevents removing armour) and Curse of Vanishing (destroys item on death) cannot be removed by the Grindstone. If an item has only a Curse and no useful enchantments, grinding it still returns some XP but the Curse remains. Items with Curse of Vanishing are generally best discarded rather than kept, as the Grindstone can’t make them safe.
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Combine two Grindstone repairs with re-enchanting for a fresh max-level tool: when a heavily used enchanted Diamond tool starts wearing down, strip it with the Grindstone (recover XP), repair the base tool by combining two worn versions (free, no XP), then re-enchant the repaired tool from scratch at the enchanting table. This cycle avoids the Anvil’s «too expensive» penalty entirely and keeps your best tools in permanent rotation without resource waste.
What does a Grindstone do in Minecraft?
A Grindstone repairs tools and weapons by combining two damaged items of the same type, adding their durability together plus a 5% bonus — at no XP cost. It also removes all enchantments from items (except Curse of Binding and Curse of Vanishing), returning XP based on the enchantments stripped. It functions as the Weaponsmith villager’s job site block.
How do you make a Grindstone in Minecraft?
Place 2 Sticks in the top-left and top-right slots, 1 Stone Slab in the top-centre, and 2 Wood Planks in the middle-left and middle-right slots of a crafting table. This produces 1 Grindstone. Stone Slabs are crafted from 3 Stone blocks in a horizontal row (produces 6 Slabs).
Does the Grindstone remove all enchantments in Minecraft?
The Grindstone removes all enchantments except Curse of Binding and Curse of Vanishing — those two curses cannot be removed by any method in vanilla Minecraft. When enchantments are removed, XP orbs are returned based on the combined value of the stripped enchantments.
What is the difference between a Grindstone and an Anvil in Minecraft?
A Grindstone repairs tools for free (no XP cost) but removes all enchantments. An Anvil repairs tools for XP and preserves enchantments — it also lets you combine enchanted books onto tools and rename items. Use a Grindstone for cheap repairs on unenchanted tools and for recovering XP from unwanted enchanted items; use an Anvil when you want to keep or add enchantments.