Are you looking to cook meat in Minecraft, smelt ores, or forge some stone? When you're burning things in the game, you usually need fuel. Coal is the usual choice, but what if you're not a fan of coal or haven't mined much? Let's pretend you're not into the whole limited resources thing. If you prefer a renewable option, we’ve got just the thing for you: Charcoal! Let’s delve into our article to find out how to make charcoal in Minecraft.

Table of Contents

What is Charcoal in Minecraft?

In the game of Minecraft, obtaining charcoal involves the process of burning wood, mirroring real-life practices. Charcoal functions as a valuable fuel and plays a role in specific crafting formulas as well. Interestingly, in the Minecraft Education Edition, you can create charcoal by combining 7 Carbon, 4 Hydrogen, and 1 Oxygen block, making it one of the rare items with an educational crafting recipe.

Charcoal In Minecraft
In the game of Minecraft, obtaining charcoal involves the process of burning wood, mirroring real-life practices.

Coal and Charcoal: Differences

Even though charcoal and coal may seem similar in Minecraft, they have distinct differences:

  • Origin: Coal is a mineral found in ore blocks, while charcoal doesn't occur naturally.
  • Efficiency: Charcoal is more efficient and lasts longer as fuel for furnaces and blast furnaces compared to coal.
  • Combination: You can't combine charcoal to create a block of coal or vice versa.
  • Villager Trading: Villagers only trade emeralds for coal, not for charcoal.

Because of these distinctions, Minecraft treats coal and charcoal as separate items, preventing them from being combined or stacked in your inventory. However, you can still interchange them in certain crafting recipes, as we'll explore later in this article.

>>> Read more: Coal Vs Charcoal Minecraft: Difference, Uses And How To Make

How to make charcoal in Minecraft: Items required

To craft charcoal in Minecraft, you'll need the following items:

  • A Furnace
  • Any Fuel
  • Any Wood Block

In Minecraft, the production of charcoal involves smelting various wood blocks, such as logs, stripped logs, wood, and stripped wood blocks from any tree within the game. When it comes to fuel options, players can utilize any wooden item, coal, dried kelp, blaze rod, or even a bucket of lava. For optimal results, it is recommended to use wooden planks or logs, as they are more readily available in the Minecraft world.

How To Make Charcoal In Minecraft

To convert the wooden blocks into charcoal, a furnace is essential. You can create a furnace in Minecraft by following this guide. In the Minecraft Java Edition, it's noteworthy that you can incorporate Cobblestone, Blackstone, or cobbled deepslate blocks into the crafting process of the furnace. Additionally, it's important to highlight that a blast furnace cannot be used to smelt wood into charcoal; you must exclusively rely on a regular furnace for this purpose.

How to Make Charcoal in Minecraft

Now, for the crucial step, let's go through the crafting process outlined below to create charcoal in Minecraft:

How To Make Charcoal In Minecraft
1. Position the furnace on the ground. And, right-click or utilize the secondary action key to activate the furnace.
How To Make Charcoal In Minecraft
2. Insert any of your wooden blocks (excluding planks) into the top slot of the furnace.
How To Make Charcoal In Minecraft
3. Place one of the fuel items, preferably wooden planks, in the bottom slot of the furnace.
How To Make Charcoal In Minecraft
4. Once you've added the fuel, the furnace will initiate the process. Shortly after, the wood will transform into charcoal in just a few seconds.

You can watch this video for an easier guide:

How to Use Charcoal in Minecraft

In Minecraft, you can use charcoal for various purposes:

  • Fuel: Charcoal serves as a fuel source for powering furnaces and blast furnaces.
  • Torches: Combining charcoal with a stick creates a torch, providing light in the game.
  • Soul Torch: Adding a block of soul sand to charcoal and a stick results in a soul torch.
  • Fire Charge: By combining charcoal with blaze powder and gunpowder, you can craft a fire charge. This item is used to light the Nether portal and create fire.
  • Campfires: Charcoal can replace coal in the crafting recipe for campfires without affecting efficiency.

More than that, an interesting mechanic is that you get charcoal when you reverse the crafting of a campfire. If you use the Silk Touch enchantment to mine a campfire, it drops two pieces of charcoal. It's worth noting that the campfire doesn't need to be crafted with charcoal for this mechanic to work.

How to make Charcoal in Minecraft: Trivia

Here's some trivia about making charcoal in Minecraft:

  • Powered Minecarts: Only Charcoal and Coal can power minecarts.
  • Achievement Unlock: Smelting logs using Charcoal as a fuel source earns you the "Renewable Energy" Achievement.
  • Texture Confusion: Initially, Charcoal shared the same texture as Coal, causing confusion, particularly because they didn't stack. The texture was later updated to an original design.
  • Campfire Drops: Breaking a campfire without Silk Touch results in Charcoal dropping as an item.

How to Make Charcoal in Minecraft: Conclusion

That covers all the basics for setting up your fuel supply. In Minecraft, running out of fuel is not a common issue, but if you aim for completely renewable energy without mining, a tree farm can be an excellent solution. While charcoal might not be the top choice for massive stone production or smelting all your ores simultaneously, feel free to choose what suits your style. Whatever you decide, we hope you all have a fantastic game!

>>> Check out: 5 Best Fuels To Replace Coal In Smelting Work In Minecraft