How to Make Shears in Minecraft – 6 Easy Steps

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Arthur Monteclar

Arthur is a freelance writer. The first time he played Minecraft was an unforgettable experience. Since then, he has been learning the rules of the game. He pours hours structuring his ideal world in the game. In his spare time, he reads manga and watches anime.

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Minecraft is full of monsters that want to kill you, and that is especially true during nighttime. Zombies and skeletons start spawning, spiders get aggressive towards the player, and creepers are harder to spot due to the dark environment. As such, it is ideal to quickly make a bed to skip the night. Some would stay up instead but that might not be a good idea; ever since Java 1.13, if you have not slept for three or more days, hostile flying mobs called Phantoms might show up and attack you. Check out this flying guide to help you in your mode of transportation.

So the safe way to skip the night would be to go to sleep. To make a bed, you would need three wood planks and three blocks of wool. How does one acquire that? Well, you can make one from four strings that can be dropped from spiders, but that takes too much time. The next solution would be to get some from sheep. When you kill one, it drops a block of wool.

However, killing one might be a waste of resources. Sure, it drops meat and wool, but later on, you might need more wool and you would have to find sheep in distant lands. This becomes significantly harder when you are stuck on an island. A better way to handle this would be to use shears. With it, you can gather wool without killing the sheep. What are shears and how do you make one? Read on further to find out.

How to make shears in Minecraft

Requirements to make shears:

• Two iron ingots

To get iron ingots, you would need to find iron ores. You can follow this step-by-step process to gather the materials you need to craft the shears. If you are entirely new to Minecraft or if you do not have any tools at all, you can start from step 1. If you already have a stone pickaxe or something better, start from step 4. If you already have the materials need and you just want to know how to make shears, go to step 6.

Step 1: Make a crafting table

The very first thing you need to do would be to make a crafting table. Making shears does not require a crafting table; however, you need it to craft a stone pickaxe, which you will need to mine iron ores. To make a crafting table, you would need:

• Four wooden planks of any variety

To do this, you must follow these steps.

1. First, you must find a tree. Any tree will do.
2. Break the wooden logs with your fists. Throughout this guide, you would need at least three wooden logs. If you have any appropriate tools already such as an axe, you can also use it.
3. Open your inventory.
4. When you open your inventory, you will see a 2×2 grid. That is your crafting grid. Put the wooden log in the grid.
5. Get the four wooden planks you get from the wooden log by clicking on their stack and dragging it to your inventory.
6. Fill the 2×2 crafting grid with the four wooden planks you just got.
7. Get the crafting table you get from the wooden planks.

Congratulations! You just got yourself your first crafting table. To use it, you must place it on the ground first and open it (this varies depending on what device, console or PC, you are playing on).

Check out our guide on how to make a cartography table.

Step 2: Make a wooden pickaxe

To mine iron ores, you would need a stone pickaxe, and to make a stone pickaxe, you would need to mine stone blocks. You cannot mine stone using your bare hands. Instead, you must first make a wooden pickaxe to mine stone. Afterward, the wooden pickaxe will be of no use to you anymore. The wooden pickaxe needs the following materials:

• 3 wooden planks
• 2 sticks

To do this, you must follow these steps. The following steps are under the assumption that you have collected at least three wooden logs during the previous section. So, you still have two wooden logs left.

1. Go to your crafting table and open it.
2. Place the two wooden logs on the crafting table.
3. Get the eight wooden planks via crafting and put their stack in your inventory.
4. Place two wooden planks vertically.
5. Get the four sticks via crafting and put their stack in your inventory. Only two sticks will be used for this part so be sure to save the other two sticks for the creation of the stone pickaxe.
6. Place three wooden planks on the first row.
7. Then, place one stick on the centermost tile and the other stick below it.
8. Get the wooden pickaxe via crafting and put it in your inventory.

You finally have your wooden pickaxe!

Step 3: Make a stone pickaxe

Once again, you only need to make a wooden pickaxe so that you can make a stone pickaxe. Stone pickaxes need cobblestone, and you cannot get them with your bare hands. To craft a stone pickaxe, the following materials are required:

• 3 cobblestone blocks
• 2 sticks

To do this, you must follow these steps. The following steps are under the assumption that you have kept two sticks from the previous section.

1. Find some stone blocks. You would need at least 11 of them; 3 for the stone pickaxe and 8 for the furnace in later sections. Stone blocks can be found underground, in the mountains, or sometimes just in the open field.
2. Break or mine them using your wooden pickaxe. You will get cobblestone from each stone block.
3. Go to your crafting table and open it.
4. Place three cobblestone blocks on the first row.
5. Then, place one stick on the centermost tile and the other stick below it.
6. Get the stone pickaxe via crafting and put it in your inventory.

You have a stone pickaxe now to mine some iron ores.

Step 4: Make a furnace and get coal

Before you have to go look for some iron ores, it would be better to have a furnace first to smelt the raw iron with. To get iron ingots, you would need a furnace to smelt the raw iron that comes from mining the iron ores. To craft a furnace, you would need:

• 8 cobblestone blocks

Assuming you have done the previous step and mined 11 stone blocks, then you already have the 8 cobblestone blocks you need to make a furnace. If you do not have the requirements yet, find at least 8 stone blocks and mine them with your pickaxe. Then, follow these steps.

1. Go to your crafting table and open it.
2. Place all the cobblestone blocks in the 3×3 grid EXCEPT for the centermost tile.
3. Get the furnace and put it in your inventory.

You have your furnace now. But to make it work, you also need to get some coal first. Below are the steps to obtain some coal.

1. Find at least one coal ore. They generate in chunks or blobs from levels 0 to 127 in all biomes.
2. Mine or break it using your pickaxe. Any pickaxe will do. When it breaks, you will get coal.
3. Gather the coal and put it in your inventory.

Viola! You have your coal. If you cannot find coal ore, you can make charcoal instead. You would need two wooden logs for this so if you do not have them, go find some.

1. Place the furnace and open it.
2. Put one wooden block in the upper slot. This slot is to be smelted.
3. Put one wooden block in the lower slot. This slot is the fuel source.
4. Wait for the wooden block in the upper slot to convert into charcoal.
5. Get the charcoal and put it in your inventory.

Now you have your fuel for your iron ingots.

Step 5: Get Iron Ingots

Now that you have a crafting table, a furnace, and some coal or charcoal to smelt your raw iron into iron ingots, it is time for you to get the materials needed to make shears. To get them, follow the steps below.

1. Search for at least two iron ores. They can be found as chunks or blobs from levels 0 to 63 in all biomes.
2. When you find them, mine or break them using your stone pickaxe. DO NOT use your wooden pickaxe because it cannot mine iron ores. When it breaks, you will get raw iron.
3. Gather the two raw iron resources and put their stack in your inventory.
4. Go to your furnace and open it.
5. Put the two raw iron resources in the upper slot.
6. Put coal or charcoal in the lower slot.
7. Wait for the raw iron in the upper slot to convert into iron ingots.
8. Get the two iron ingots and put their stack in your inventory.

You finally have your iron ingots! Hooray!

Step 6: Make your shears

To start, you only need:

• Two iron ingots

Assuming you already have these requirements, it is time to craft shears. You do not need a crafting table to craft shears. You can craft this using the 2×2 crafting grid on the player inventory. When you have the materials needed, follow these simple instructions:

1. Put one iron ingot on the lower left tile.
2. Put the other one diagonally above it (i.e. the centermost tile if you are using the crafting table or the upper right tile if you are using the 2×2 crafting grid).
3. Get the shears via crafting and put them in your inventory.

Obtaining Iron Ingots as Chest Loot

Even though you already have your shears, it is important to note that there are more ways to obtain iron ingots. You can also get them as chest loot from the various structures. So, if you are near any of these structures listed down below, you might find yourself some and you can skip all the way to step 6. There are two separate tables; the first one is for the Java edition and the second one is for the Bedrock edition. Note that this is following Update 1.17.

Java Edition

Bedrock Edition

Obtaining Iron Ingots as Mob Loot

Another way to get iron ingots is through mob loot. Mob loot is the items dropped by a mob when they are killed. Iron golems drop 3 to 5 iron ingots when killed. However, it is always regarded as a bad move to attack an iron golem to gather iron ingots unless they are already in an iron golem farm.

Iron ingots can also be dropped by zombies, husks, and zombie villagers with a slim 0.83% chance of dropping when killed by a player or their wolf. That is about 1/120 chances. If you have the Looting enchantment on your weapon used to kill the mob, the chances increases by 1% per Looting level. Therefore, a level 1 Looting would be 1.83% or 11/600, a level 2 Looting would be 2.83% or 17/600, and a level 3 Looting would be 3.83% or 23/600.

What are shears used for in Minecraft?

Shears are tools for cutting off the wool of sheep, but they can be used in other ways as well. In their appearance in Minecraft, they are as large, sharp scissors with brown handles. There are many ways to use the shears depending on what device you are playing in. On PC, you can use the shears on a mob or block by right-clicking on them. Below is a list of mobs and blocks that has effects and drops when used with shears. 

The shears can also be used to break and harvest the blocks faster and more efficiently compared to other tools. With shears, you can have blocks in your inventory that you could not normally harvest such as grass, leaves, etc. Below is a list of said blocks.

• Wool
• Cobweb
• Leaves
• Tallgrass
• Seagrass
• Ferns
• Dead bushes
• Nether sprouts
• Vines
• Weeping vines
• Twisting vines
• Glow lichen
• Tripwire (does not trigger a Redstone pulse)

Further Reads:

• How to Make a Saddle in Minecraft: A New Best Trick!
• How to Make a Lantern in Minecraft: Your Best Next Move

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