The grindstone is the anvil’s quieter partner. It lets you remove enchantments from items and books, get some experience back, repair tools cheaply and reset the prior work penalty that makes the anvil say Too Expensive. If you have ever looted a sword with useless enchantments, or wanted to start an item’s enchantments over, the grindstone is the answer. This guide shows how to make a grindstone in Minecraft, how to disenchant items, how grindstone repair works, and smart ways to use it in Java and Bedrock Edition.
How to make a grindstone in Minecraft
Craft a grindstone with 2 sticks, 1 stone slab and 2 wooden planks on a crafting table.
| Row | Left | Middle | Right |
|---|---|---|---|
| Top | Stick | Stone slab | Stick |
| Middle | Wooden planks | Empty | Wooden planks |
| Bottom | Empty | Empty | Empty |
The stone slab must be a plain stone slab, made from 3 stone, which you get by smelting cobblestone, on a crafting table or with a stonecutter. Any wood type works for the planks. You can also find grindstones in village weaponsmith houses and mine them with a pickaxe.
How to disenchant in Minecraft
Removing enchantments is the main reason to build a grindstone:
- Use the grindstone to open its interface. It has two input slots and one output slot.
- Put the enchanted item or enchanted book in either input slot.
- The output shows the same item with all enchantments removed, except curses.
- Take the output. Experience orbs drop from the grindstone, giving you back some of the enchanting cost.
Disenchanting an enchanted book turns it into a plain book. Disenchanting a tool, weapon or armor keeps the item and its current durability. The Curse of Binding and Curse of Vanishing are never removed, so a cursed item stays cursed.
Can you move enchantments to a book?
No. In vanilla Minecraft, the grindstone destroys the enchantments; it does not transfer them. If you want to keep an enchantment, combine items on an anvil instead.
How to repair with a grindstone
Place two damaged items of the same type, such as two iron pickaxes, in both input slots. The grindstone combines their durability and adds a 5 percent bonus, then removes all non-curse enchantments from the result. This is a free way to merge two worn tools into one good tool when you do not care about enchantments, and it costs no experience at all.
| Action | Grindstone | Anvil |
|---|---|---|
| Combine two items | Yes, 5 percent bonus, removes enchantments | Yes, 12 percent bonus, keeps enchantments |
| Cost | Free, and gives XP back | Costs XP levels |
| Remove enchantments | Yes | No |
| Rename items | No | Yes |
| Resets prior work penalty | Yes | No, increases it |
| Wears out | Never | Breaks after about 25 uses |
Resetting the anvil penalty
Every time you work on an item in an anvil, its repair cost grows until the anvil refuses with Too Expensive. Running the item through a grindstone removes the enchantments and resets that penalty to zero. You can then enchant it again in a better order: combine your books first and apply them in as few anvil steps as possible.
Getting XP from a grindstone
When you disenchant, the grindstone drops experience based on the enchantments removed, roughly between half and the full minimum cost of those enchantments. Disenchanting the junk enchanted gear dropped by zombies and skeletons, or the enchanted books you do not need, is a small but steady XP source. Fishing gives lots of enchanted books and bows that are perfect for this.
Grindstone as a villager job block
A grindstone is the job site block for the weaponsmith villager. Place one near an unemployed villager and it becomes a weaponsmith, who trades enchanted swords and axes and buys coal and iron. Weaponsmiths can be a good source of emeralds early in a game.
Placing a grindstone
A grindstone can be placed on the floor, on a wall or hanging from a ceiling, depending on which surface you click. It looks like a wheel between two wooden legs. Because it is not a full block, it is popular in builds as decoration: as a wheel on a cart, a chair, a mill or part of a workshop scene.
When to use a grindstone vs an anvil
- You want to keep enchantments: use an anvil.
- You want to delete enchantments and recover some XP: use a grindstone.
- An item says Too Expensive: grindstone it to reset the penalty, then re-enchant.
- Two plain worn tools: grindstone combines them for free.
- Renaming: anvil only.
Common mistakes
- Putting an item with Mending in the grindstone by accident; Mending is lost forever.
- Expecting the grindstone to remove curses; it never does.
- Using a polished or smooth stone slab instead of a regular stone slab in the recipe.
- Trying to combine different item types, such as a sword and a pickaxe, which does not work.
Java vs Bedrock
The grindstone recipe and behavior are the same in both editions: it removes non-curse enchantments, repairs with a 5 percent bonus and gives back XP. Bedrock players sometimes see slightly different XP amounts.
Grindstone FAQ
How do you make a grindstone in Minecraft?
Craft 2 sticks, 1 stone slab and 2 wooden planks: sticks on the top corners, the slab in the top middle, and planks on the middle row sides.
How do you disenchant in Minecraft?
Put the item or enchanted book in a grindstone and take the output. All enchantments except curses are removed.
How do you remove enchantments in Minecraft?
Use a grindstone. You get some experience back.
Does a grindstone remove curses?
No. Curse of Binding and Curse of Vanishing stay.
Does a grindstone break?
No. Unlike an anvil, it never wears out.
Smart ways to use a grindstone
- Clean up fishing loot: fishing gives enchanted bows, fishing rods and books with random enchantments. Keep the good ones and grind the rest for XP.
- Fix a bad enchant order: if you put cheap enchantments on a diamond sword first and now the anvil cost is too high, grind it, then apply your combined books in one or two steps.
- Prepare items for trading: some players grind junk enchanted gear before dropping it, to keep their storage tidy.
- Make plain books: unwanted enchanted books become normal books for bookshelves.
- Mob farm gear: zombies and skeletons sometimes drop enchanted armor and weapons, which are a small but free XP source when ground.
Grindstone in a full enchanting room
A well-designed enchanting room keeps the enchanting table, 15 bookshelves, an anvil and a grindstone within a few steps of each other, plus chests for books, lapis lazuli and repair materials. Many players also add an XP farm nearby so they can level up, enchant, combine and reset without traveling. Because the grindstone never breaks, it is a one-time build, unlike the anvil, which needs replacing after about 25 uses.
Is a grindstone worth it?
Yes. It costs only sticks, planks and a stone slab, which you have from the first day, and it solves two of the most annoying problems in the enchanting system: unwanted enchantments and the Too Expensive limit. Even if you rarely disenchant, the free repair of plain tools alone makes it useful in early survival.
Tip: shift-click items into the grindstone to move them quickly, and check the output preview before taking it, because the change cannot be undone.
Grindstones also work on enchanted books from villagers you no longer need, so a librarian trading hall pairs nicely with one.
Because a grindstone also acts as decoration, many builders hide a working one in a blacksmith or mill scene in their base, so it is always within reach.