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Utility · Gear · 1.21

How to Make an Anvil

The workbench that keeps your best gear alive. An anvil repairs, renames and enchants, for a price in experience, and it is the only place to apply an enchanted book.

The recipe

Three iron blocks across the top, four ingots below in a T. Thirty-one iron in all.

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Make the blocks from nine ingots each. Grab the grid on Astroworld crafting or look up the iron block.

Three jobs it does

Tap through the anvil’s three core uses.

Restore durability

Combine two of the same item, or an item with its repair material, a diamond tool with diamonds, iron gear with iron ingots. Merging two worn items also grants a small durability bonus, and unlike a grindstone it keeps the enchantments.

It wears out, and it falls

It chips

Roughly one use in four damages the anvil: new, then chipped, then damaged, then gone. Keep a few iron spare to recast one.

It falls

Anvils obey gravity like gravel and hurt anything they land on. Handy as a trap, dangerous if you mine the block beneath one.

Mind the level cost

Each anvil use adds a hidden “prior work” penalty, so repeated edits get pricier until you hit Too Expensive past 40 levels. Combine your enchanted books together first, then apply the merged book once, to keep the bill down. Mending avoids the anvil entirely for everyday repairs.

Quick answers

What is the recipe?
Three iron blocks across the top and four iron ingots, one in the middle and three along the bottom. That is 31 iron in total, so it is a mid-game block.
Why does it say Too Expensive?
Every time you use an anvil on an item the next repair costs more. Past 40 levels in Survival it refuses the job. Combine cheaper books first to keep the count down.
Do anvils break?
Yes. Each use has about a one-in-four chance to chip the anvil. It goes from new to chipped to damaged, then is destroyed. They are consumable.
Anvil or grindstone?
A grindstone repairs for free but strips enchantments. An anvil costs XP but keeps them, and is the only way to apply books and custom names.
What can I repair with?
Either two of the same item, or the item plus its raw material, diamonds for diamond gear, netherite ingots for netherite, planks for a wooden tool.
Is it true they fall?
Yes. Anvils obey gravity like sand and gravel, and a falling anvil hurts anything underneath. Players use them for traps and for quick vertical drops.

Smelt the iron in a furnace, compare every enchantment you can apply, or open the crafting recipes for the exact grid.