Overview
A Stone Shovel is the tool that makes gravel worth digging, because gravel is where flint comes from and flint is what turns sticks and feathers into arrows. At 131 uses and roughly double the wooden tier's speed, it clears a river bank of gravel in a couple of minutes and yields flint at about a 10% chance per block — enough for a first stack of arrows and a flint and steel with material to spare. It handles the same block list as every other shovel: sand, dirt, clay, snow, soul sand, mud and concrete powder. Snow is worth a special mention. A shovel is the only sensible way to gather snow layers and snow blocks, and a snow golem plus two shovels is an infinite snowball supply, which matters more than it sounds when blazes are involved. Because cobblestone costs nothing, most players carry a stone shovel long past the point where their pickaxe has moved up a tier, and simply craft a new one when it breaks. Dig one riverbank properly and arrows stop being something you ration for the rest of the world.
Bulk gravel digging for flint, clearing sand for glass and concrete, gathering snow for snowballs, and shaping terrain around an early base. Free material, and flint solves the arrow problem.
Stone Shovel is a tool item in Minecraft Java Edition 1.21.4. Durability is 131. An anvil plus Cobbled Deepslate, Cobblestone, and Blackstone restores it; two worn copies can also be merged.
It can be enchanted, which is usually worth doing before heavy use. It is unstackable. The recipe calls for Cobblestone and Stick.
It is not used in any crafting recipe.
About the stone tool set
How to get it
Craft 1 from 1 Cobblestone and 2 Sticks. Digging gravel with it drops Flint about 10% of the time, rising to a guaranteed drop with Fortune III.
Tips
- Fortune III on any shovel makes every gravel block drop flint, which removes arrow scarcity permanently.
- Snowballs stack to 16 and do knockback damage to blazes; a snow golem plus a shovel is a free supply.
- Clay dug with a shovel drops 4 clay balls, which smelt into bricks — the base of the whole brick block set.
- Concrete powder needs a shovel to break; hardened concrete needs a pickaxe, which catches out most new builders.
Damage and attack speed
Stone Shovel deals 3.5 damage per hit and swings 1 times a second, which works out at 3.5 damage per second when every swing is fully charged.
A swing that lands before the cooldown bar refills deals a fraction of that, so waiting for the bar is worth more than clicking faster.
That is 6 hits to kill a zombie or a creeper, the same for a skeleton, and 5 hits for a spider.
Properties
Stone Shovel lasts 131 uses before it breaks, and Cobbled Deepslate repairs it on an anvil. Two worn copies can also be merged, on an anvil or a grindstone. Unbreaking III roughly quadruples the lifespan, and Mending replaces the repair cost with experience. Its enchantability of 5 decides how good the enchanting table's offers are: the higher the number, the more often a level-30 table offers the top-tier enchantment rather than a weak one. Stone Shovel does not stack — each one occupies an inventory slot of its own.
- Damage per second
- 3.5
- Enchantability
- 5
- Repaired with
- Cobbled Deepslate
- Category
- Tools
How it compares to the rest of the set
Every tier of shovel in the game, side by side, so the trade-off is visible in one place: Stone Shovel sits 2 of 6.
Gold is the outlier: it enchants better than anything else (enchantability 22) and breaks almost immediately, which is why gold gear is enchanted and then upgraded rather than used.
| Item | Durability | Attack damage | Attack speed | Enchantability |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Wooden Shovel | 59 | 2.5 | 1 | 15 |
| Stone Shovel | 131 | 3.5 | 1 | 5 |
| Iron Shovel | 250 | 4.5 | 1 | 14 |
| Golden Shovel | 32 | 2.5 | 1 | 22 |
| Diamond Shovel | 1,561 | 5.5 | 1 | 10 |
| Netherite Shovel | 2,031 | 6.5 | 1 | 15 |
Crafting recipe
Crafting Table
Stone Shovel
Cobblestone, blackstone or cobbled deepslate — Cobblestone, Blackstone, Cobbled Deepslate
Enchantments it can take
5 enchantments can be applied to Stone Shovel: Efficiency, Fortune, Mending, Silk Touch, and Unbreaking.
Mending is a treasure enchantment and never appears at an enchanting table — they come from loot chests, fishing or villager trades only.
Guides and tools that cover this
Frequently asked questions
How do you make Stone Shovel in Minecraft?
Stone Shovel is crafted from Cobblestone and Stick.
What is the stack size of Stone Shovel?
Stone Shovel does not stack at all. Every one you carry takes an inventory slot of its own, which is the practical limit on how many you take on a trip.
How much damage does Stone Shovel do?
3.5 damage per fully charged hit, at 1 attacks per second — 3.5 damage per second. Strength II adds 6 damage on top of that.
How much durability does Stone Shovel have?
Stone Shovel has 131 durability, and can be repaired on an anvil with Cobbled Deepslate.
Can Stone Shovel be enchanted?
Yes — 5 enchantments apply to it, at an enchanting table with fifteen bookshelves, or from an enchanted book on an anvil. Mending is usually the one worth hunting for, because it removes the repair cost entirely.
The rest of the set
Stone Shovel is one of 6 variants of the same shape. The others are made from different materials, so their numbers differ:
