Minecraft Grindstone Recipe: Craft One, Remove Enchantments and Repair Gear

To make a grindstone in Minecraft, place two sticks, one stone slab, and two wooden planks on a crafting table. Put the sticks in the upper-left and upper-right squares, the stone slab between them, and one plank directly beneath each stick. Take the grindstone from the output slot and place it wherever you want to repair or disenchant gear. This crafting pattern is the starting point for both Java and Bedrock players.

Minecraft grindstone recipe: exact crafting pattern

Open a crafting table rather than the small 2×2 grid in your inventory. Arrange the five ingredients as follows:

One crafting operation produces one grindstone. The slab must be a regular stone slab; a cobblestone slab or a stone-brick slab is not interchangeable in the recipe. The planks can come from ordinary wood types, and the two planks do not need to match.

How to get the materials

1. Two sticks: convert logs into planks, then put two planks vertically in a crafting grid to make sticks.
2. Two wooden planks: keep two additional planks from any normal wood type.
3. One stone slab: smelt cobblestone in a furnace to produce stone. Place three stone blocks in a horizontal row of the crafting grid to make six stone slabs, then use one.

If the recipe does not appear, confirm you used smelted stone rather than smooth stone or stone bricks, and that you opened a full crafting table. New players can consult our crafting table walkthrough to check how the 3×3 grid works.

What a grindstone does in Minecraft

A grindstone has two main uses. You can combine two damaged items of the same kind to recover some durability in the resulting item, or remove ordinary enchantments from eligible tools, weapons, and armor. Removing those enchantments returns some experience. It is not a way to preserve enchantment combinations: the ordinary enchants on the input are removed instead of transferred.

Curse enchantments are an important exception. A grindstone does not remove Curse of Binding or Curse of Vanishing. Do not assume a cursed item will become safe merely because you put it in a grindstone.

How to disenchant an item

1. Place the grindstone in your world and interact with it.
2. Put an enchanted, grindstone-compatible item in an input slot.
3. Review the output before taking it. Non-curse enchantments will be removed.
4. Move the output item into your inventory if you want to accept the change.

Because the action permanently removes the non-curse enchantments, consider keeping the item if you plan to build on its existing bonuses. For adding or managing enchantments, read our enchanting table guide.

Repairing equipment with a grindstone

Insert two compatible damaged items in the two input slots. The grindstone combines their remaining durability into a single output item, subject to the item’s maximum durability. This consumes the input items. It can be useful when you would otherwise throw away worn-out ordinary equipment, but it is usually a poor choice for valuable enchanted gear because the non-curse enchantments disappear.

Grindstone versus anvil versus crafting repair

For an enchanted diamond pickaxe you want to keep, the anvil is generally the better option. For a tool whose enchantments you no longer want, the grindstone is appropriate. Our anvil guide explains the other approach.

Why the grindstone recipe may not work

• Wrong slab: use the plain stone slab item, not a similarly named building variant.
• Wrong grid: open a crafting table with nine squares.
• Misplaced planks: planks belong on the left and right of the middle row, with its center empty.
• Item cannot be combined: for a repair, inputs must be compatible items of the same type.
• Expected to remove a curse: the grindstone intentionally leaves curse enchantments in place.

Frequently asked questions

Do grindstones work in both Java and Bedrock Edition?

Yes. The core recipe and the ordinary-enchantment removal function are available in both editions. Interface placement can look different on different devices.

Does a grindstone give all enchantment XP back?

No. It can return experience when it removes eligible enchantments, but you should not expect a full refund of the experience spent acquiring or applying them.

Can a grindstone repair netherite equipment?

Compatible netherite items can be combined for durability, but normal enchantments are lost. If you want to retain those enchantments, investigate an anvil repair or Mending instead.

Can villagers use a grindstone?

Yes. A grindstone is the job-site block associated with the weaponsmith profession. How villagers claim job-site blocks depends on their current profession and working arrangements; see our villager jobs explainer.

Sources and image credit

For edition-specific changes, use the official Minecraft website and the in-game recipe book as your current references. Featured editorial screenshot: Xbox México via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 3.0. The screenshot illustrates Minecraft gameplay; it is not a demonstration of the grindstone interface.