Overview
A Wooden Hoe turns grass and dirt into farmland, and farmland is where every renewable food supply in the game begins. One use tills one block, so the 59 uses of a wooden hoe are enough for a 9×9 field with a water source in the middle — which is a larger farm than a single player needs for bread, and it costs two planks and two sticks. Tilling is the only job it needs to do well, but hoes quietly became a proper tool class in 1.17: they are now the fastest way to break hay bales, dried kelp blocks, target blocks, sponges, moss, nether wart blocks, shroomlights and sculk, so a hoe in the hotbar saves real time in a Nether build or a lush cave. Attack damage is 1, the lowest of any tool, so it is never a weapon. The practical advice for a fresh world is to make one on the first afternoon, till a small wheat field beside water, and plant the seeds from the grass you have already broken. Seeds cost nothing, and a field planted on day one feeds you for the rest of the world.
Making farmland for wheat, carrots, potatoes and beetroot on the first day, and breaking hay bales, moss and sculk faster than any other tool class.
Wooden Hoe is one of the 6 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. Stone Hoe is the same shape in a different material.
Wooden Hoe is a tool item in Minecraft Java Edition 1.21.4. Durability is 59. An anvil plus Oak Planks, Spruce Planks, Birch Planks, Jungle Planks and 8 more 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 Oak Planks and Stick.
It is not used in any crafting recipe.
About the wooden tool set
How to get it
Craft 1 from 2 planks of any wood and 2 Sticks. Its 59 uses till a 9×9 field with room left over, which produces enough wheat for bread and for breeding cows.
Tips
- Till within 4 blocks of water or the farmland dries out and reverts to dirt, taking the crop with it.
- Break tall grass with any tool to get Wheat Seeds — a first field costs nothing but time.
- Jumping on farmland turns it back into dirt, so fence the field or the first cow you breed will trample it.
- Hoes break hay bales and dried kelp blocks fastest, which matters when unpacking a village's food stores.
Damage and attack speed
Wooden Hoe deals 1 damage per hit and swings 1 times a second, which works out at 1 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 20 hits to kill a zombie or a creeper, the same for a skeleton, and 16 hits for a spider.
Properties
Wooden Hoe lasts 59 uses before it breaks, and Oak Planks 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 15 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. In a furnace it burns for 10 seconds, which smelts 1 item. Wooden Hoe does not stack — each one occupies an inventory slot of its own.
- Damage per second
- 1
- Enchantability
- 15
- Repaired with
- Oak Planks
- Fuel value
- 10 s
- Category
- Tools
How it compares to the rest of the set
Every tier of hoe in the game, side by side, so the trade-off is visible in one place: Wooden Hoe sits 1 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 Hoe | 59 | 1 | 1 | 15 |
| Stone Hoe | 131 | 1 | 2 | 5 |
| Iron Hoe | 250 | 1 | 3 | 14 |
| Golden Hoe | 32 | 1 | 1 | 22 |
| Diamond Hoe | 1,561 | 1 | 4 | 10 |
| Netherite Hoe | 2,031 | 1 | 4 | 15 |
Crafting recipe
Crafting Table
Wooden Hoe
Enchantments it can take
5 enchantments can be applied to Wooden Hoe: 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 Wooden Hoe in Minecraft?
Wooden Hoe is crafted from Oak Planks and Stick.
What is the stack size of Wooden Hoe?
Wooden Hoe 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 Wooden Hoe do?
1 damage per fully charged hit, at 1 attacks per second — 1 damage per second. Strength II adds 6 damage on top of that.
How much durability does Wooden Hoe have?
Wooden Hoe has 59 durability, and can be repaired on an anvil with Oak Planks.
Can Wooden Hoe 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
Wooden Hoe is one of 6 variants of the same shape. The others are made from different materials, so their numbers differ:
