Overview
Birch Slab is one of the 30 variants of this shape in the game. What changes between them is the material, and with it the hardness, the drops, the durability and the recipe — so every figure on this page is this variant's own. Oak Slab is the same shape in a different material.
In Minecraft 1.21.4, Birch Slab is a building block. Birch Slab has a crafting recipe, so it is renewable as long as you can source its ingredients. At a hardness of 2 it takes a moment to break but never slows a build down.
Broken correctly, it drops itself. Sixty-four fit in one inventory slot. The recipe calls for Birch Planks.
It is an ingredient in 5 recipes, among them Barrel, Chiseled Bookshelf, Composter and 2 more.
About the birch set
How long it takes to break
Birch Slab has a hardness of 2. By hand that is 3 seconds per block; with the correct tool at netherite tier it is 0.35 seconds.
An iron tool takes 0.5 seconds and a diamond one 0.4, so the jump that actually matters for this block is the one to iron.
The drop does not depend on the tool — bare hands work as well as anything — so the table below is purely about speed.
Efficiency contributes its level squared plus one to tool speed, which makes Efficiency V roughly 3.5 times faster than the plain tool.
| Tool | No enchantment | Efficiency III | Efficiency V |
|---|---|---|---|
| Hand | 3 s | 3 s | 3 s |
| Wooden | 1.5 s | 0.25 s | 0.15 s |
| Stone | 0.75 s | 0.25 s | 0.1 s |
| Iron | 0.5 s | 0.2 s | 0.1 s |
| Diamond | 0.4 s | 0.2 s | 0.1 s |
| Netherite | 0.35 s | 0.2 s | 0.1 s |
| Golden | 0.25 s | 0.15 s | 0.1 s |
Properties
Blast resistance on Birch Slab is 3, so an explosion nearby will usually take it out. It stops light entirely and gives off no light. One inventory slot holds 64, the normal full stack. Fire spreads to it readily (encouragement 5, burn 20), so keep it away from lava and away from anything you would rather not lose. An axe is fastest here; any other class mines it at bare-hand speed, because the bonus only applies to the class the block is tagged for. As furnace fuel it burns for 7.5 seconds — 0.8 smelting operations.
- Transparent
- No
- Required tool
- Any
- Flammable
- Yes (5/20)
- Fuel value
- 7.5 s
Crafting recipe
Crafting Table
Birch Slab ×6
Drops
Mined with any, Birch Slab drops itself.
Used to craft
Birch Slab is an ingredient in 5 recipes, producing Barrel, Chiseled Bookshelf, Composter, Daylight Detector, and Lectern.
Guides and tools that cover this
Frequently asked questions
How do you get Birch Slab in Minecraft?
Birch Slab is crafted from Birch Planks.
What tool do you need to break Birch Slab?
No specific tool is required — Birch Slab can be broken by hand.
Is Birch Slab blast resistant?
Birch Slab has a blast resistance of 3, so an explosion nearby will destroy it.
How many Birch Slab fit in one stack?
64 per stack, so a double chest holds 3,456 Birch Slab.
How long does Birch Slab take to break?
With the correct tool at netherite tier it takes 0.35 seconds; by hand it takes 3 seconds.
The rest of the set
Birch Slab is one of 30 variants of the same shape. The others are made from different materials, so their numbers differ:
