Without a furnace, you are bound to die in Minecraft very soon. Furnaces provide many benefits, such as cooking meat for better restoration of hunger bars, smelting ores, and making charcoal, an alternative to coal. Luckily, furnaces are easy to craft, and most are made on the first day of survival. Here is the quick and simple guide to make a furnace in Minecraft.

Before you start: You will need to break trees to collect wood if you are starting from scratch.

How to make a furnace in Minecraft

Follow the instructions below to craft the furnace and use it to smelt items.

Method 1: Making a furnace

  • Open the crafting table. Right-click on your crafting table. If you don’t have a crafting table yet, skip down to the beginner instructions below.
  • Place eight cobblestone in the crafting area. Drag eight cobblestone blocks into the area. Fill every square except the center, which stays empty.
  • Drag the furnace to your quick slot. A furnace should appear in the results area. Drag it to one of your quick slots at the bottom of the screen.
  • Place it on the ground. Select the furnace and right-click on the ground to put it down. A block-sized grey furnace should appear.
  • Right-click to use the furnace. See below for more information on using furnaces.

Method 2: Starting from nothing

  • Break down trees for wood. Click and hold on tree trunks to break them into wood.
  • Turn the wood into planks. Open your inventory and drag the wood into the crafting area. Planks should appear in the results box. Drag the planks to your inventory.
  • Make a crafting table. Fill all four slots of your inventory crafting area with planks to make a crafting table. As before, drag the crafting table to your inventory to finish the recipe.
  • Place the crafting table on the ground. Put the crafting table into one of your quick slots at the bottom of the screen. Click to pick it up, then right-click on the ground to set it down.
  • Turn more planks into sticks. Break down more trees for wood and more wood into planks if you need to. Place one plank above a second plank in your crafting area. Drag the sticks into your inventory.
  • Make a pickaxe. Here’s how to make your first tool:
    • Right-click your crafting table to open it.
    • Place a stick in the center square, and a second stick directly below it.
    • Place three planks along the top row.
    • Drag the pickaxe from the results area into a quick slot.
  • Mine cobblestone. Click the quick slot with your pickaxe to pick it up. Look for stone (grey blocks) in mountainsides or by digging a short ways downward. Click and hold on the stone to break it into cobblestone. Warning: Make sure you mine regular cobblestone, and not cracked or mossy cobblestone.
  • Place eight cobblestone in the crafting table. Leave the center space empty but fill the other eight slots in your crafting table. The cobblestones will be transformed into a furnace.
  • Place your furnace in position. Place your furnace on the ground just as you did with the crafting table.

Method 3: Smelting with the furnace

  • Open the furnace. Right-click on the furnace after placing it to open an interface similar to the crafting table’s.
  • Put in objects to smelt in the top square. The furnace has two squares for putting in items. Get started by placing the item you want to alter in the top slot. Here are a few examples of what you can do:
    • If Iron ore: It will become iron ingots
    • If Sand: It will become glass
    • If Raw food: It will become cooked food
    • If Clay: It will become brick
    • If Wood: It will become charcoal
    • If Cobblestone: It will become smooth stone
  • Add fuel. Nothing will happen until you add fuel to heat the furnace. This goes in the second slot. Practically anything flammable can be used, but these are the most common options:
    • Coal is the most efficient widely available option
    • Wood is even more widely available, but burns quickly.
    • Charcoal is a middle ground.
  • Wait for it to finish. The furnace will consume fuel as it operates, but as long as you keep it stocked, it will keep converting the whole stack of items you’ve put in the top slot. The final product will appear in the right hand square. The furnace will have a small fire animation while it’s operating. If this stops, you’ve either run out of fuel or you’re done smelting.
Pro tip: A great early game strategy is to put wood in the top slot to turn it into charcoal, then move that charcoal to the bottom slot as fuel. This creates a self-sustaining loop for a while.

Crafting a furnace is the single most important milestone in the first few minutes of a Minecraft survival world. Without the ability to smelt, you are stuck with raw meat that barely restores hunger and stone tools that cannot mine iron or diamonds. By securing a furnace early, you unlock the ability to cook food for full saturation and mine iron to upgrade your gear.

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Furthermore, the furnace opens up the path to building with glass and smooth stone, allowing for more advanced construction projects. It also enables the production of charcoal, which serves as a reliable fuel source for torches to light up your base and keep monsters at bay. Mastering this simple block is the foundation of a long and successful survival playthrough.