Overview
A Wooden Shovel makes digging dirt, sand and gravel about three times faster than using your hands, and on a first day spent carving a shelter into a hillside that is a real saving. It handles every soft block: dirt, coarse dirt, grass blocks, sand, red sand, gravel, clay, snow, soul sand, soul soil, mud and concrete powder — but nothing harder, so stone still needs a pickaxe. Its 59 uses will comfortably see out a starter hole and a small farm plot. Every shovel, wood included, also does two jobs that have nothing to do with digging: used on a grass block it flattens the top into a dirt path, which is the standard decorative walkway, and used on a lit campfire it puts the fire out without breaking the block. Both work identically at every tier, so there is no reason to wait for iron to start landscaping. Make one alongside the first pickaxe and axe; the three together cost about one tree. It is the least glamorous tool in the game and the one that shapes your first shelter, so make it early and do not think about it again.
Digging out a first shelter, clearing sand and gravel, flattening grass into path blocks for walkways, and putting out a campfire without destroying it. Nothing else does those four jobs this cheaply.
Wooden Shovel 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 Shovel is the same shape in a different material.
Wooden Shovel 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 1 plank of any wood and 2 Sticks — the cheapest tool recipe in the game. Its 59 uses dig roughly 59 blocks of dirt, sand or gravel.
Tips
- Use it on grass to make a dirt path — a free decorative block that needs no crafting at all.
- A shovel puts out a campfire; an axe or a water bucket breaks or floods it instead, which is rarely what you want.
- Gravel falls when unsupported, so dig gravel from the side rather than standing under a column of it.
- One plank and two sticks is nothing; make a spare before heading underground on the first night.
Damage and attack speed
Wooden Shovel deals 2.5 damage per hit and swings 1 times a second, which works out at 2.5 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 8 hits to kill a zombie or a creeper, the same for a skeleton, and 7 hits for a spider.
Properties
Wooden Shovel 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 Shovel does not stack — each one occupies an inventory slot of its own.
- Damage per second
- 2.5
- Enchantability
- 15
- Repaired with
- Oak Planks
- Fuel value
- 10 s
- 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: Wooden Shovel 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 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
Wooden Shovel
Enchantments it can take
5 enchantments can be applied to Wooden 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 Wooden Shovel in Minecraft?
Wooden Shovel is crafted from Oak Planks and Stick.
What is the stack size of Wooden Shovel?
Wooden 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 Wooden Shovel do?
2.5 damage per fully charged hit, at 1 attacks per second — 2.5 damage per second. Strength II adds 6 damage on top of that.
How much durability does Wooden Shovel have?
Wooden Shovel has 59 durability, and can be repaired on an anvil with Oak Planks.
Can Wooden 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
Wooden Shovel is one of 6 variants of the same shape. The others are made from different materials, so their numbers differ:
