Axe

Template:Tool

An axe is a tool used to hasten the collection of wood-based items. It is also used as a weapon for melee attacks.

Obtaining

Crafting

Ingredients	Crafting recipe	Description
Any Planks or Any Cobblestone or Blackstone or Iron Ingot or Gold Ingot or Diamond + Stick		The axe's material can be placed either to the left or the right of the sticks.
Damaged Matching Axe		The durability of the two axes is added together, plus an extra 5% durability.

Upgrading

Diamond Axe +
Netherite Ingot +
Netherite Axe

Upgrade Gear

Repairing

Grinding

Ingredients	Grinding recipe	Description
2x Damaged Wooden Axe or 2x Damaged Stone Axe or 2x Damaged Iron Axe or 2x Damaged Golden Axe or 2x Damaged Diamond Axe or 2x Damaged Netherite Axe		The durability of the two axes is added together, plus an extra 5% durability.

Unit repair

An axe can be repaired in an anvil by adding units of the tiers' repair material, with each repair material restoring 25% of the axe's maximum durability, rounded down.

Mobs

Equipment

A vindicator spawns with an iron axe and has an 8.5% chance (9.5% with Looting I, 10.5% with Looting II and 11.5% with Looting III) of dropping it upon death by the player. It usually has some amount of damage and is sometimes enchanted.

A piglin brute spawns with a golden axe and has an 8.5% chance (9.5% with Looting I, 10.5% with Looting II and 11.5% with Looting III) of dropping it upon death by the player. Also, in Java Edition, zombified piglins can drop their golden axe (with the same chance as piglin brute drop) if they have been zombified from a piglin brute.

Raids

In Bedrock Edition, Vindicator and pillagers that spawn in raids have a 4.1% chance (5.12% on hard) to drop a badly-damaged iron axe, which is sometimes enchanted with a random enchantment. It is possible for a vindicator to drop 2 iron axes, one from natural equipment and one from raid drops.

Trading

Novice-level Toolsmith villagers have a 25% chance to sell a stone axe for one emerald, journeyman-level Toolsmith villagers have a 25% chance to sell an enchanted iron axe for eight emeralds, and expert-level Toolsmith villagers have a 50% chance to sell an enchanted diamond axe for 13 emeralds.‌^{[Bedrock Edition only]}

Novice-level Toolsmith villagers have a 40% chance to sell a stone axe for one emerald, journeyman-level Toolsmith villagers have a 40% chance to sell an enchanted iron axe for 7-22 emeralds, and expert-level Toolsmith villagers have a ²⁄₃ chance to sell an enchanted diamond axe for 18-35 emeralds.‌^{[Java Edition only]}

Novice-level Weaponsmith villagers sell an iron axe for 3 emeralds as one of their trades, and master-level Weaponsmith villagers sell an enchanted diamond axe for 12 emeralds.‌^{[Bedrock Edition only]}

Novice-level Weaponsmith villagers have a ²⁄₃ chance to sell an iron axe for 3 emeralds. Master-level Weaponsmith villagers always offer to sell an enchanted diamond axe for 18-35 emeralds.‌^{[Java Edition only]}

The enchantments are the same as the ones obtained from an enchantment table at levels 5–19.

Natural generation

In woodland mansions, a sealed room can appear that has a chest always containing an Efficiency I iron axe.

Item	Structure	Container	Quantity	Chance
Java Edition
Wooden Axe	Bonus chest	Chest	1	75%
Stone Axe	Bonus chest	Chest	1	25%
	Igloo	Chest	1	14.7%
	Underwater ruins	Small ruins chest	1	30.2%
Enchanted Golden Axe^[A]	Bastion remnant	Hoglin stable chest	1	22.8%
		Generic chest	1	9.8%
		Bridge chest	1	11.2%
	Ruined portal	Chest	1	20.5%
Bedrock Edition
Wooden Axe	Bonus chest	Chest	1	75%
Stone Axe	Bonus chest	Chest	1	25%
	Igloo	Chest	1	14.7%
	Underwater ruins	Small ruins chest	1	30.2%
Enchanted Golden Axe^[A]	Bastion remnant	Hoglin stable chest	1	22.8%
		Generic chest	1	9.8%
		Bridge chest	1	11.2%
	Ruined portal	Chest	1	20.5%

↑ ^a ^b All enchantments are equally probable, including treasure enchantments (except Soul Speed, and Swift Sneak), and any level of the enchantment is equally probable.

Usage

Chopping wood

An axe is used to break logs and blocks derived from wood faster than by using other tools. An axe uses 1 durability to break 1 block. For blocks that break instantly, it uses 0 durability.

Durability

Each tier of axe has a different durability:

Material	Durability
Wood	59
Stone	131
Iron	250
Diamond	1561
Golden	32
Netherite	2031

Speed

The following table summarizes the speed at which axes of different qualities perform.

Block	Breaking time^[A]
Block	Default	Wooden	Stone	Iron	Diamond	Netherite	Golden
Wooden Trapdoors	4.5	2.25	1.15	0.75	0.6	0.5	0.4
Wooden Doors	4.5	2.25	1.15	0.75	0.6	0.5	0.4
Chest	3.75	1.9	0.95	0.65	0.5	0.45	0.35
Trapped Chest	3.75	1.9	0.95	0.65	0.5	0.45	0.35
Lectern	3.75	1.9	0.95	0.65	0.5	0.45	0.35
Smithing table	3.75	1.9	0.95	0.65	0.5	0.45	0.35
Loom	3.75	1.9	0.95	0.65	0.5	0.45	0.35
Cartography table	3.75	1.9	0.95	0.65	0.5	0.45	0.35
Fletching table	3.75	1.9	0.95	0.65	0.5	0.45	0.35
Barrel	3.75	1.9	0.95	0.65	0.5	0.45	0.35
Fences	3	1.5	0.75	0.5	0.4	0.35	0.25
Fence Gates	3	1.5	0.75	0.5	0.4	0.35	0.25
Jukebox	3	1.5	0.75	0.5	0.4	0.35	0.25
Logs	3	1.5	0.75	0.5	0.4	0.35	0.25
Planks	3	1.5	0.75	0.5	0.4	0.35	0.25
Wooden Slabs	3	1.5	0.75	0.5	0.4	0.35	0.25
Wooden Stairs	3	1.5	0.75	0.5	0.4	0.35	0.25
Campfire	3	1.5	0.75	0.5	0.4	0.35	0.25
Bookshelf	2.25	1.15	0.6	0.4	0.3	0.25	0.2
Banners	1.5	0.75	0.4	0.25	0.2	0.2	0.15
Jack o'Lantern	1.5	0.75	0.4	0.25	0.2	0.2	0.15
Melon	1.5	0.75	0.4	0.25	0.2	0.2	0.15
Pumpkin	1.5	0.75	0.4	0.25	0.2	0.2	0.15
Sign	1.5	0.75	0.4	0.25	0.2	0.2	0.15
Note Block	1.2	0.6	0.3	0.2	0.15	0.15	0.1
Wooden Pressure Plate	0.75	0.4	0.2	0.15	0.1	0.1	0.1
Beehive	0.9	0.45	0.25	0.15	0.15	0.1	0.1
Ladder	0.6	0.3	0.15	0.1	0.1	0.1	0.05
Bee Nest	0.45	0.25	0.15	0.1	0.1	0.05	0.05
Composter	0.9	0.45	0.25	0.15	0.15	0.1	0.1
Bamboo	1.5	0.75	0.4	0.25	0.2	0.2	0.15
Bed	0.3	0.15	0.1	0.05	0.05	0.05	0.05
Cocoa	0.3	0.15	0.1	0.05	0.05	0.05	0.05
Daylight Detector	0.3	0.15	0.1	0.05	0.05	0.05	0.05
Mushroom Block	0.3	0.15	0.1	0.05	0.05	0.05	0.05
Vines	0.3	0.15	0.1	0.05	0.05	0.05	0.05

↑ Times are for unenchanted tools as wielded by players with no status effects, measured in seconds. For more information, see Breaking § Speed.

Stripped logs/wood

Using an axe on a log or wood block causes it to become a stripped log or a stripped wood block, respectively. This consumes one point of durability from the axe.

Weapon

Java Edition

Damage done when using an axe as a weapon is more than that of a sword, though they take longer than a sword to recover.

The difference between the two is that a sword does a swipe attack, spreading a splash damage to multiple nearby entities, while an axe concentrates its damage on a single target. An axe loses 2 points of durability when used as a weapon. The damage dealt and cooldown time depends on the type:

Material	Wooden	Gold	Stone	Iron	Diamond	Netherite
Attack damage	7	7	9	9	9	10
Attack Speed	0.8	1.0	0.8	0.9	1.0	1.0
Recovery time	1.25 seconds 25 game ticks	1 second 20 game ticks	1.25 seconds 25 game ticks	1.11 seconds 22.2 game ticks	1 second 20 game ticks	1 second 20 game ticks
DPS	5.6	7.0	7.2	8.1	9.0	10.0
Lifetime damage inflicted^{[note 1]}	210 × 105	119 × 59.5	594 × 297	1134 × 567	7029 × 3514.5	10150 × 5075

↑ The formula to find the total lifetime damage is (durability ÷ 2) × damage per hit = minimum lifetime damage. The durability is halved because axes take double durability when used as a weapon. The formula also ignores enchantments and critical hits, and assumes the axe is at maximum charge.

Disabling shields

In Java Edition, attacking a shield user with an axe has a chance to disable the use of the shield for 5 seconds. The base chance is 25%, plus 5 percentage points per level of Efficiency on the axe, plus 75 percentage points if attacking while sprinting. Mobs armed with axes (vindicators or others with commands) always disable the player's shield.

Bedrock Edition

In Bedrock Edition, axes always attack instantly (without a cooldown) and do less damage than a sword of the same quality:

Material	Attack damage
Wooden	3
Golden	3
Stone	4
Iron	5
Diamond	6
Netherite	7

Enchantments

An axe can receive the following enchantments:


Name	Max Level	Method
Fortune^{[note 1]}	III	Template:GridTemplate:Grid
Silk Touch^{[note 1]}	I	Template:GridTemplate:Grid
Efficiency	V	Template:GridTemplate:Grid
Unbreaking	III	Template:GridTemplate:Grid
Sharpness^{[note 2]}	V	Template:Grid
Smite^{[note 2]}	V	Template:Grid
Bane of Arthropods^{[note 2]}	V	Template:Grid
Cleaving‌^{[upcoming: JE Combat Tests]}^{[note 2]}	III	Template:GridTemplate:Grid
Mending	I	Template:Grid
Curse of Vanishing	I	Template:Grid

↑ ^a ^b Silk Touch and Fortune are mutually exclusive.
↑ ^a ^b ^c ^d Sharpness, Smite, Bane of Arthropods, and Cleaving‌^{[upcoming: JE Combat Tests]} are mutually exclusive.

Fuel

Wooden axes can be used as a fuel in furnaces, smelting 1 item per axe.

Smelting ingredient

Name	Ingredients	Smelting recipe
Iron Nugget or Gold Nugget	Iron Axe or Golden Axe + Any fuel	0.1

Sounds

Sound	Subtitles	Source	Description	Resource location	Translation key	Volume	Pitch	Attenuation distance
	Axe scrapes	Blocks	When stripping wood	`item.axe.strip`	`subtitles.item.axe.strip`	0.9	0.85, ?	16
	Item breaks	Players	When durability is exhausted	`entity.item.break`	`subtitles.entity.item.break`	1.0	0.9	16

Data values

ID

Java Edition:

Name	Identifier	Translation key
Wooden Axe	`wooden_axe`	`item.minecraft.wooden_axe`
Stone Axe	`stone_axe`	`item.minecraft.stone_axe`
Iron Axe	`iron_axe`	`item.minecraft.iron_axe`
Diamond Axe	`diamond_axe`	`item.minecraft.diamond_axe`
Golden Axe	`golden_axe`	`item.minecraft.golden_axe`
Netherite Axe	`netherite_axe`	`item.minecraft.netherite_axe`

Bedrock Edition:

Name	Identifier	Numeric ID	Translation key
Wooden Axe	`wooden_axe`	`271`	`item.wooden_axe.name`
Stone Axe	`stone_axe`	`275`	`item.stone_axe.name`
Iron Axe	`iron_axe`	`258`	`item.iron_axe.name`
Diamond Axe	`diamond_axe`	`279`	`item.diamond_axe.name`
Golden Axe	`golden_axe`	`286`	`item.golden_axe.name`
Netherite Axe	`netherite_axe`	`746`	`item.netherite_axe.name`

Achievements

Icon		Achievement	In-game description	Actual requirements (if different)	Gamerscore earned	Trophy type (PS4)
PS4	Other	Achievement	In-game description	Actual requirements (if different)	Gamerscore earned	Trophy type (PS4)
		MOAR Tools	Construct one type of each tool.	Construct one pickaxe, one shovel, one axe, and one hoe with the same material.	15G	Bronze
		Oooh, shiny!	Distract a Piglin using gold	Give a piglin a gold item while it is aggressive toward the player.	30G	Silver

Advancements

Icon	Advancement	In-game description	Parent	Actual requirements (if different)	Resource location
	Oh Shiny	Distract Piglins with gold	Nether	While aggravated, give a piglin one of these 25 gold-related items in the `#piglin_loved` item tag: Bell Block of Gold Block of Raw Gold Clock Enchanted Golden Apple Gilded Blackstone Glistering Melon Slice Gold Ingot Gold Ore Golden Apple Golden Axe Golden Boots Golden Carrot Golden Chestplate Golden Helmet Golden Hoe Golden Horse Armor Golden Leggings Golden Pickaxe Golden Shovel Golden Sword Light Weighted Pressure Plate Nether Gold Ore Deepslate Gold Ore Raw Gold Other gold-related items do not distract the piglin and do not trigger this advancement.	`nether/distract_piglin`

History

indev
0.31		20100111-1			Added iron axes.
					An axe is used to gather wood 400% faster than by hand.
					When starting in a new world, the player is given one of each tool.
		20100122			The texture of axes has been changed. Half of the axe head has been removed.
		20100124			The texture of axes has been changed. The other axe head is now used instead.
		20100124			A complete toolset is no longer given to the player on starting a new world. Instead, there are multiple chests in the later called "Indev House" containing a stack of most accessible blocks/items including tools.
		20100128			Tools now have tiers. Wooden, stone, and diamond axes have been added.
					The texture of iron axes has been changed.
					An axe held by the player now appears more 3d like.
					They cannot be crafted yet, but have been added to the item chest in Indev house.
		20100129			Wood, stone, iron, and diamond axes can now be crafted.
		20100130			Axes can now be made out of gold.
		20100201-1			Tools now take damage when being used. Better tools last now longer.
20100206					The texture of golden axes has been changed.
beta
1.2					Gold tools, including axes, now remove blocks faster than diamond tools.
Java Edition
1.3.1		12w16a			Wooden and stone axes are now found in the new bonus chests.
		12w18a			Wooden axes can now be used as fuel in a furnace.
		12w21a			Blacksmith villagers now sell 1 diamond axe for 9–11 emeralds, and 1 iron axe for 6–7 emeralds.
1.8		14w02a			Weapon smith villagers now sell 1 enchanted diamond axe for 9–12 emeralds, and 1 iron axe for 6–8 emeralds. Unenchanted diamond axes are no longer sold.
1.9		15w34a			Axes now use the attack speed combat mechanic meter. The time it takes for the meter to fill up for an axe is 1.2 seconds.
		15w34b			Axes now have an attack speed of 0.8, taking about 1.25 seconds to fill the attack meter.
		15w34c			Axes do 4 more damage than previously.
					Axes now have an attack speed of 0.85.
					Axes can now temporarily disable shield use.
		15w35a			The damage of axes has been reduced by one.
		15w35a			The speed of axes has been increased to 0.9.
		15w37a			Stone and diamond axes now both do 9 damage, instead of the previous 8 and 10 respectively.
		15w37a			Axes now have attack speed based on the tier, with wooden and stone having a speed of 0.8, iron having a speed of 0.9, and diamond having a speed of 1.
		15w43a			Stone axes may now be found in igloo basement chests.
		15w44a			The average yield of stone and wooden axes from bonus chests has been decreased.
1.11.1		16w50a			Golden and iron axes now smelt down into one of their respective nuggets.
1.13		17w47a			Prior to The Flattening, these items' numeral IDs were 271, 275, 258, 279 and 286.
		18w07a			Using an axe on bark or a log now turns it into a stripped log.
		18w09a			Stone axes now can generate in the chests of underwater ruins.
		pre2			Using an axe on a bark now turns it into a stripped bark.
1.14		18w43a			The textures of all axes have been changed.
1.16		20w06a			Added netherite axes.
		20w06a			Netherite axes are obtained by combining one diamond axe and one netherite ingot in a crafting table.
		20w09a			The texture of diamond axes has been changed.
		20w10a			The texture of netherite axes has been changed.
					Netherite axes can no longer be crafted.
					Netherite axes are now obtained by combining one diamond axe and one netherite ingot in a smithing table.
		20w15a			Stone axes can now be crafted using blackstone.
		20w16a			Golden axes now generate randomly enchanted in ruined portal chests.
Upcoming Java Edition
Combat Tests		1.14.3 - Combat Test			The attack speed for all axes has been increased to 2.
		1.14.3 - Combat Test			All axes now deal 1 more damage than their sword counterparts.
		Combat Test 3			The Chopping enchantment has been added for axes, which adds 1 damage and 0.5 seconds (10 game ticks) of shield stunning per level and is mutually exclusive with Sharpness.
					Axes now always disable shields for 1.6 seconds (32 game ticks), instead of having a 25% to disable them for 5 seconds (100 game ticks).
					Axes now take 1 damage when attacking instead of 2.
Pocket Edition Alpha
0.2.0					Added stone axes.
0.3.0					Added wooden axes.
0.3.2					Added iron, golden and diamond axes.
0.11.0		build 11			All axes are now available in the creative inventory.
		build 12			All axes have been removed from creative.
		build 13			All axes have been re-added to creative mode.
Pocket Edition
1.0.0		alpha 0.17.0.1			Stone axes now can be found inside igloo basement chests.
1.0.4		alpha 1.0.4.0			Weaponsmith villagers now sell iron axes for 6-8 emeralds as part of their first tier trades and enchanted diamond axes for 9-12 emeralds as part of their third tier trades.
1.1.0		alpha 1.1.0.0			Iron and golden axes are now smeltable.
					Iron axes with the Efficiency I enchantment can now be found inside chests in woodland mansions.
					Added vindicators, who rarely drop iron axes.
Bedrock Edition
1.2.0		beta 1.2.0.2			Wooden and stone axes can now be found in bonus chests.
1.4.0		beta 1.2.13.8			Using an axe on a log now turns it into a stripped log.
1.4.0		beta 1.2.20.1			Stone axes can now be found inside underwater ruins chests.
1.10.0		beta 1.10.0.3			The textures of all axes have been changed.
1.11.0		beta 1.11.0.4			Vindicators and pillagers that spawn in raids can now drop an iron axe.
					Trading has been changed, weaponsmith villagers now sell iron axes for 3 emeralds and enchanted diamond axes for 12 emeralds as part of their fourth tier trades.
					Stone axes, enchanted iron axes, and diamond axes can now be bought from toolsmith villagers.
1.16.0		beta 1.16.0.51			Added netherite axes.
					Netherite axes are obtained by combining one diamond axe and one netherite ingot in a crafting table.
					The texture of diamond axes has been changed.
		beta 1.16.0.57			Netherite axes can no longer be crafted.
					Netherite axes are now obtained by combining one diamond axe and one netherite ingot in a smithing table.
					Stone axes can now be crafted using blackstone.
					Golden axes now generate randomly enchanted in ruined portal chests.
					Netherite axes now generate randomly enchanted in bastion remnant chests.
1.16.20		beta 1.16.20.50			Added piglin brutes, who rarely drop golden axes.
Legacy Console Edition
TU1	CU1	1.00	Patch 1	1.0.1	Added axes (all five types).
TU53	CU43	1.49	Patch 23	1.0.3	Iron and golden axes are now smeltable.
		1.90			The textures of all axes have been changed.
New Nintendo 3DS Edition
0.1.0					Added axes.