How to make a pickaxe in Minecraft

Aakrit Sharma
Minecraft character walking with a pickaxe

You cannot progress in Minecraft without a pickaxe as it helps in mining a wide range of valuable ores like iron and gold. Here’s a guide to making a pickaxe in Minecraft.

From veterans to newbies, everyone in Minecraft has to have a pickaxe. You can start out by making a wooden pickaxe and with time, you should be able to craft a rare diamond variant of the tool as well.

Pickaxes are primarily used for mining which is one of the most important mechanics of Minecraft. There are different types of pickaxes depending on their material, and each has its own significance. With access to metals, you can easily make items such as buckets, compasses, and beacons, among many others.

Here’s how to make a pickaxe in Minecraft.

Iron Ore underground in Minecraft

How to craft a pickaxe in Minecraft

You need two sticks and three blocks of either wooden planks, stone, diamond, iron ingot, or gold ingot to make a pickaxe in Minecraft. While the two sticks are common in every crafting recipe, the three blocks of material can vary according to your needs and availability of resources.

How to make sticks in Minecraft

You need wooden planks to make sticks in Minecraft. In the Overworld, you’ll find a ton of trees, and breaking them drops wooden logs. Add these logs to any slot of the crafting grid and you’ll obtain wooden planks.

Now, add two wooden planks vertically to the middle blocks of the first and second rows of the crafting grid to get sticks:

Crafting recipe for sticks in Minecraft

Sticks are also used to make torches in Minecraft that eventually help you in making lanterns.

Crafting recipe for a pickaxe in Minecraft

To get a pickaxe in Minecraft, place two sticks in the middle blocks of the second and third rows of a 3×3 crafting table. Now, fill the first row with three pieces of your desired raw material which could be wooden planks, cobblestone, iron ingots, gold ingots, and diamonds.

The crafting recipe has also been showcased in the image below:

Crafting recipe for pickaxe in Minecraft

The ingredients for every type of pickaxe in the sandbox game are:

  • Wooden pickaxe – two sticks + three wooden planks of any type.
  • Stone pickaxe – two sticks + three stone blocks of any type.
  • Iron pickaxe – two sticks + three iron ingots.
  • Gold Pickaxe – two sticks + three gold ingots.
  • Diamond pickaxe – two sticks + three diamonds.

Always place the two sticks vertically in the second column and the crafting material in the first row.

It is worth noting that you cannot craft a Netherite pickaxe in Minecraft. To make one, you first need to have a diamond pickaxe and Netherite Ingot. Then, use a smithing table to upgrade the diamond pickaxe into a Netherite pickaxe.


For more Minecraft content, check out these guides on how to find amethyst, how to make a shield, and how to tame a fox.

Image Credits: Mojang