How to Make an Anvil in Minecraft

Crafting an anvil in Minecraft requires a certain level of expertise. Anvils are essential tools for repairing gear and tools, as well as renaming items in a unique way. However, the process of crafting an anvil is not as straightforward as a regular crafting table recipe. It requires a significant amount of iron, which must be transformed into iron blocks to create a proper anvil. This can be a challenging task, particularly for beginners.

We will provide you with all the information on how to make an anvil in minecraft. You will learn the necessary steps to create an anvil, including the required materials and the crafting process. By following these instructions, you will be able to create an anvil that meets your needs and enhances your Minecraft experience.

Gathering Materials for a DIY Anvil

Let’s start at the beginning – what exactly do we need to make an anvil in Minecraft? Here’s the list:

• 31 iron ingots
• A crafting table (duh!)

Yeah, it’s a whole heap of iron. 31 ingots total.

So first things first – mine yourself some iron! You’ll find iron ore deep underground in caves and tunnels. Look for the blocky grey-ish blobs. Take your pickaxe and start smacking away to collect that ore.

Once you’ve got a good haul of iron back at your base, time to smelt it down. Pop that ore onto your furnace fuel it up to turn the ore into shiny iron ingots.

Got all 31 ingots ready to go? Awesome, now we can start crafting!

Turning Ingots into Iron Blocks

Here’s where things get a little different than your usual recipe. We need to turn some of those ingots into blocks of iron.

Take 9 ingots at a time and plop them into your crafting table grid to fill all the squares. This will craft you 1 iron block.

Do this 3 times total so you end up with 3 iron blocks.

Then take 7 leftover ingots and hold onto those for the next part.

Assembling Your Anvil

Alright, time for the fun stuff – putting it all together! At your crafting table, place your 3 iron blocks along the top row.

In the very center square of the middle row, pop 1 ingot.

Then take those last 7 ingots and fill all the squares along the bottom row.

Take a step back and bam – you’ve got yourself a fancy new anvil!

I remember when I first crafted one of these bad boys. Felt so awesome having that accomplishment under my belt!

Using Your Anvil Like a Pro

You made it! Got your anvil sitting pretty and ready to go. But what can you actually do with these things? Lots of super cool stuff, my friend.

Anvils open up new ways to upgrade gear, customize your items, and even squeeze out some extra life from your aging tools. Let me break it down…

Repairing Your Gear

One of the biggest jobs for an anvil in Minecraft is repairing all your shields, weapons, armor, and tools.

As you adventure and farm and build, these items slowly take damage over time. They’ll eventually break and leave you unprotected or unable to harvest materials. Bummer!

But take your damaged item over to an anvil and you can combine it with some extra materials to restore its durability – good as new!

For example, if your iron pickaxe is looking a little worse for wear, grab some extra iron ingots. Place the pick in the left slot of the anvil interface, and the ingots in the right.

Boom! Your pick bounces back to full health. No need to totally rebuild tools each time. Saves so much effort!

This works great on armor too. Metal helmets starting to crack? Toss it and some more iron or diamonds on the anvil to beef that sucker back up.

Keep your gear going strong even when it starts to fail. Anvils for the win!

Renaming and Customizing Items

Tired of boring old regular-named tools and weapons? I feel ya.

Take your items to a whole new level of customization by naming them on an anvil!

Simply place the item you want to rename in the left anvil slot. Then click the right side and type whatever witty new name you come up with. I dubbed my bow “Sandra the Eagle Eye”. Hey, I was young!

Renaming stuff is especially handy once you start enchanting items too. A quick name can help you remember what buffs it’s got without having to constantly inspect. Maybe call your Sharpness IV sword “Vlad the Impaler” as a scary little warning!

Plus, it just feels cooler adventuring around with specialized names for all your prized gear. Walking into battle wearing “Grimbles Magnificent Pants” is way better than plain old iron leggings in my opinion!

So don’t settle for boring defaults – make it personal with an anvil renames.

Understanding Anvil Durability

Now, while anvils are massively useful, they don’t last forever in Minecraft. Each type of anvil has a set level of durability that slowly ticks down when you use it.

Eventually your anvil will become damaged and need to be replaced before it outright breaks. Boo!

There’s a few key things that make an anvil lose durability:

• Using it for repairs or renaming items
• Dropping the anvil from any height (don’t do this!)
• Letting it get smashed by an explosion

When you first craft an anvil, it starts at perfect condition. But keep using it over time and you’ll notice subtle visual cracks start to appear on the top surface. This helps display the remaining health of the anvil so you know when it’s getting risky.

Once an anvil becomes very damaged, it has a chance to fail any repair jobs you try to do. And if you keep attempting repairs it could break completely! No one wants that.

So keep an eye on those cracks to know when your anvil needs replaced. And avoid dropping it off ledges for no good reason, that’s just reckless!

Anvil Upgrades in Minecraft

As you keep playing Minecraft and taking on huge projects, a regular old anvil might not cut it forever.

Eventually you may need to upgrade to a more heavy-duty anvil model so you can:

• Repair items with WAY more durability
• Apply more powerful enchantments
• Increase success rate of jobs

Luckily there’s 2 additional tiers of anvil you can craft as an intermediate or expert player. Let’s check them out!

Chipped Anvil

A small step above the starter anvil is the chipped anvil. To craft:

• 4 iron blocks
• 1 iron ingot

It looks slightly different with chunks visibly missing along the edges and top. But this design gives you better repair potential and durability overall.

Upgrading isn’t strictly necessary until you start handling seriously enhanced weapons, armor, and tools later in gameplay. But it’s nice to keep in mind.

Damaged Anvil

The most advanced anvil in Minecraft is the damaged anvil. It requires:

• 5 iron blocks
• 1 iron ingot

This beast of an anvil looks pretty mangled and battered. But it can handle a savage beating as your most reliable anvil tier in the game.

You likely won’t need to upgrade to a damaged anvil until way deeper into survival or taking on major projects. We’re talking god-tier gear that would crush a basic anvil in one repair session.

But if you do lots of experiments with enchanting and take on the Ender Dragon, a damaged anvil will serve you super well as that last line of crafting defense!

Quick Anvil Tips & Tricks

I’ve covered a whole bunch about anvils already, but wanted to drop some extra little tips too for getting the most out of them!

• Carry an anvil with a piston – Pistons can move most blocks in Minecraft, including anvils! Use this to slide anvils around bases.
• Silk touch iron – If you silk touch iron ore instead of smelting it, each block counts for 9 ingots towards crafting! Saves some smelting time.
• Anvil shelves – Make a raised surface with openings to stand under and use your anvil more easily. No squatting!
• Enchant first, then rename – When customizing enchanted gear, always apply the enchantment before renaming items on the anvil.
• Prevent falling anvil damage – Wear a helmet or drink a potion of slow falling to reduce damage if an anvil falls on your head. Ouch!

Now you’ve got all my best tips and advice for mastering anvils in your Minecraft games. Go out there and get crafting! Make some awesome renamed gear, juice up your enchantments, and keep all your items in the best condition possible.

Once you get the hang of it, anvils feel totally game-changing. Have fun out there and let me know if you have any other questions!

Frequently Asked Questions

Do anvils need to placed on anything specific to work?

Nope! Anvils can sit on any solid block surface like grass, stone, wood platforms, etc. The block below doesn’t impact its crafting ability. Just has to be a stable base.

Can items wear out an anvil faster over time?

Yes indeed! Items with large durability pools like Elytra wings take huge tolls on an anvil condition with each use. Repeated jobs on the same item accelerate wear and tear. Mix up repairs across tools!

Is it possible to repair a damaged anvil once it’s cracked?

Unfortunately no. The only way to “fix” an anvils condition is to craft an entirely new one. No amount of materials can undo the visible wear once it appears through use over time. You can slow degradation by avoiding fall impacts though!

Do enchantments always transfer when combining items on an anvil?

Not necessarily! In the case of conflicting enchants that can’t exist on one item, the enchantments don’t always carry over. For example, Protection and Blast Protection cancel each other out. Plan ahead to avoid losing enchants unexpectedly!

Can players injure themselves with a falling anvil?

You bet! Anvils can deal heavy damage if they fall onto player’s heads or bodies. Wearing helmets and chestplates reduce the damage taken. And drinking slow falling pots prevents huge damage entirely! So imbue slow falling or dodge! Just mind your positioning if manually placing anvils above you or terrain.

Conclusion

There you have it – everything you could ever wanna know about crafting and using anvils in Minecraft!

They really open up SO many new repair, customization, and enhancement options once you unlock them. Make sure to take advantage of renaming gear, upgrading durability on damaged stuff, and even boosting enchantments in the late game.

Just be mindful not to accidentally destroy your anvil over time with fall damage or constant Elytra wing repairs! Check those cracks.

And if you’re looking to really max out repairs and high-tier enchant jobs, go ahead and upgrade to a chipped or damaged anvil when needed.

Let me know if you have any other Minecraft questions. I’m always happy to dig into more tips and advice!