- To craft one flint and steel, you need one iron ingot and one flint in Minecraft.
- Place the two items in whichever slot of the 2 x 2 grid of your inventory to make flint and steel.
- This useful tool also generates in loot chests of Nether fortresses and ruined portals.
- Flint and steel can be used to create fire when used on a block with a solid surface.
When we talk about tools in Minecraft, the first things that usually come to your mind are an axe, a pickaxe, and a shovel. The brush and shear are also considered tools, even though they are far less durable. But one of the most useful “mini tools” in the game is flint and steel. It comes in especially handy in certain situations and can even save your life. So, we dedicated this guide to teaching you how to make flint and steel in Minecraft.
Items You Need to Make Flint and Steel
The name “flint and steel” describes its crafting ingredients well, and those are: 1 Iron Ingot and 1 Flint.
Iron ingots are the result of smelting raw iron or iron ores inside a furnace or blast furnace. They are also commonly found in chests of multiple in-game structures. Flint is an item you can get when you mine gravel blocks without the silk touch Minecraft enchantment. If you use this enchantment, you will never get flint from gravel.
Moreover, since the flint and steel recipe is simple it doesn’t even require the use of the 3 x 3 grid that the crafting table or the crafter provides. Instead, you are free to use the 2 x 2 grid inside your inventory.
Flint and Steel Crafting Recipe in Minecraft
Once you obtain the required items, follow the craft recipe below to make flint and steel:
- First, press the “E” key on your keyboard to open the inventory.
- Then, take the flint and place it in any slot of the 2 x 2 grid.
- After that, place the iron ingot in whichever slot you want.
- Now, you will see a flint and steel appear on the right.
The recipe is completely shapeless, so it will work regardless of the ingredients’ position. You can then simply click and move the Flint and Steel to your inventory.
How to Repair Flint and Steel in Minecraft
It’s possible to repair two damaged flint and steel tools in the crafting grid. Simply place both of them in any slot of the grid (this recipe is shapeless as well), and the new flint and steel icon will appear on the right.
Its durability will equal the sum of the two tools’ durabilities and it will also receive a 5% durability on top of that to make it worth your while.
Where to Find Flint and Steel in Minecraft
Crafting flint and steel is not the only way in which to get this tool in Minecraft. You can also find it in loot chests of Nether Fortresses and Ruined Portals. This does make sense since one of the uses for the flint and steel is to light obsidian frames and activate Nether portals. But, how do you actually do that? Let’s cover that now.
How to Use Flint and Steel in Minecraft
In order to use a flint and steel, you’ll need to have it selected on your hotbar. Then, walk up to a block with a solid surface and right-click it or use the secondary action button. This will activate the tool and create a fire on the surface of the block. And voila, that’s how you use flint and steel.
Though beside that, flint and steel can be used to:
- Light candles, candles on top of cakes and campfires.
- Light Nether portals.
- Ignite TNTs and creepers.
- Light the block below a Minecraft mob so that the mob dies without it counting as a player kill. This is useful in case you need to get rid of a pillager patrol captain near an existing village.
- Be placed in a dispenser. After the dispenser has been activated, it will place fire or ignite TNT and campfires in front of it.
As you’ll notice quickly after using the flint and steel, its durability is quite low. Luckily, we can do something about that with the help of enchantments. It’s possible to put mending, unbreaking, and curse of vanishing on the flint and steel, but you can only do this using enchanted books.
So, now you know how to make and use flint and steel in Minecraft. Keeping this item in the ender chest will allow you to use it whenever you need to, but it won’t take up a slot of your inventory. And believe us, you want to keep it on you in the case of you getting stuck on the Nether roof with some obsidian.
With that said, what are you planning to do with the flint and steel? Do let us know in the comments below!
No matter how the fire was created, be it because of flint and steel or lava, it won’t burn chests.
You may not be getting flint because of the silk touch enchantment. If you do have it on a shovel, you cannot get flint from gravel. Also, whether the gravel block will drop flint is determined by RNG (random number generator). So, if you’re not lucky, it can take some time to get flint. But in case you want lots of flint, you can enchant your shovel with fortune III. This will 100% of the time cause flint to drop while mining gravel.
