How to make charcoal in Minecraft

Aakrit Sharma
A Minecraft campfire surrounded by pieces of charcoal

Fuels like charcoal play a major role in Minecraft, especially during smelting. Here’s a quick guide to making charcoal in Minecraft with the help of simple ingredients like wood.

Charcoal is a great substitute for coal and obtaining it in Minecraft is easier as well as cheaper. For this reason, many players rely more on charcoal than coal in the early stages of their journey.

It is almost impossible for a player to progress without having a decent supply of fuel. Moreover, charcoal is widely used to make campfires and light torches.

Now that we know what makes it valuable, here’s everything you need to know about crafting charcoal in Minecraft.

Minecraft Creepers approaching two villagers

How to produce charcoal in Minecraft

You need wood, a crafting table, and a furnace to create charcoal in Minecraft. While wood is the basic ingredient, the crafting table and furnace help in making wooden planks and smelting, respectively.

How to get wood in Minecraft

You can easily get wood in Minecraft by breaking trees. A lot of biomes have trees and you shouldn’t have a problem finding some. There are nine types of wood in Minecraft, and luckily, all of them can be used to make charcoal.

Trees drop wooden logs that can be then converted to wooden planks. To do so, simply put logs in a block of the crafting grid and they’ll turn into wooden planks.

Minecraft plains with bees and flowers

How to make a crafting table in Minecraft

You can make a crafting table in Minecraft with four wooden planks. After collecting logs from trees and turning them into planks, just open the default 2×2 crafting grid and place a plank on each block:

Crafting recipe to make a crafting table in Minecraft

How to make a furnace in Minecraft

You need eight blocks of cobblestone to make a furnace in Minecraft. After collecting the ingredients, open the 3×3 crafting table and place a cobblestone piece on each block except the central one:

Crafting recipe to make a furnace in Minecraft

A furnace in Minecraft has two sections. On the top, you place the item you want to smelt and the bottom section is for fuel.

Hence, to make charcoal, add wooden logs to the top and wooden planks at the bottom. Wait for some time (until the arrow turns white) and you’ll obtain charcoal.

Smelting wood to make charcoal in Minecraft

Charcoal is a great fuel for beginners as wooden logs are much easier to collect than coal ore. However, towards the end game, you should get a ton of coal through mining.


For more Minecraft content, check out these guides on the best Sword enchantments, how to tame a cat, and how to make a compass.

Image Credits: Mojang

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