User:Thriplerex/Ore Blocks Galore!

Blocks of gold (also known as gold blocks) are decorative mineral blocks that do not appear in normally generated maps.

Gold blocks can be crafted by placing 9 gold ingots in a 3x3 square in a crafting grid. The gold blocks can then be crafted back into 9 ingots again (even in your inventory crafting grid), making them more useful as a compact way to store gold ingots rather than a building material. They are also used in a recipe to make a more powerful variation of golden apples.

Mining a gold block drops itself (rather than ingots) as long as an iron or higher level pickaxe is used, thus, no resources are lost. However, if they are broken without a pickaxe, they drop nothing, effectively causing the loss of all 9 gold ingots used to create the block.

Gold blocks are susceptible to destruction from TNT, and only require approximately 1 second to mine successfully.

Trivia

 * Gold and iron blocks are the only mineral blocks in Classic.
 * Gold and diamond blocks are the only mineral blocks to share the same textures. Iron used to, but as of 1.8, it was changed to a more industrial look.

Blocks of iron (also known as iron blocks) are decorative mineral blocks made from iron ingots which do not appear in normally generated maps anywhere. Iron blocks have the same texture on all six sides.

Iron blocks can be made by placing 9 iron ingots in a 3x3 square on a crafting table. The 9 ingots can be recovered by placing the block in a crafting grid. Iron blocks used to be crafted with only 6 iron ingots in the Pocket Edition, but this was changed to the normal 9 ingots in version 0.4.0 alpha. This makes iron blocks more functional as storage units than as building units. Iron blocks can be mined with a stone, iron, or diamond pickaxe, taking about 2 seconds to destroy. If an iron block is mined without the use of a pickaxe, it drops nothing, wasting all 9 ingots.

Iron blocks and pumpkins are used to make Iron Golems.

History
Blocks of Diamond (also known as Diamond Blocks) are decorative mineral blocks that do not appear in normally generated maps. They are obtained by crafting nine Diamonds together in a 3x3 square in a crafting grid. They currently serve no crafting purpose, and function only as a decorative block and as a means of storing diamonds in a compact fashion. Diamond blocks can only be mined successfully with an Iron or Diamond Pickaxe. They use the same texture on all six sides. They are thought to be one of, if not the, hardest item to acquire in-game with the exception of blocks requiring the Silk Touch enchantment.

History
Blocks of Emerald (also known as emerald blocks) are decorative mineral blocks that do not naturally generate in maps. Although their primary usage is decoration, they can also be used to store emeralds in a compact fashion and are one of the four mineral blocks that can be used in the construction of beacon pyramids. Crafting a 3x3 square of emeralds in a crafting table produces a single emerald block. Emeralds can be reacquired by placing the emerald blocks into a crafting grid.

History


On May 28, 2012, Jeb tweeted an image featuring a room containing redstone lamps and Blocks of Emerald.

Trivia

 * Jeb removed the old chest textures in terrain.png to make room for the Block of Emerald next to the other icons of items, causing the locked chest to have the blank, purple "texture" on its sides and the top texture of a Block of Emerald.

History
Lapis Lazuli blocks were added in Beta 1.2. Until Emerald blocks were introduced in snapshot 12w22a, Lapis Lazuli Blocks were the only mineral blocks that could be crafted from a material not used for crafting tools or armor.

The lapis lazuli texture was rotated in Beta 1.6, tweaked a bit in 1.8 and 1.0, and rotated back (to original orientation) in snapshot 12w22a.

Trivia

 * It is easier to craft a Lapis Lazuli block than any other ore block, because a Lapis Lazuli ore block drops 4-8 Lapis Lazuli dye.
 * In real life, Lapis Lazuli is a blue gem that may be ground and processed into ultramarine pigment. Lapis Lazuli pigment has been famously used in the production of illuminated manuscripts, stained glass, and cave paintings. It was also used by Egyptians for their jewelry and other valuable items. (See Wikipedia page).
 * Despite being a mineral block, Lapis Lazuli blocks cannot be used to power up the Beacon block.
 * Unlike all of the other mineral blocks, Lapis Lazuli has the properties of stone, while the others (Diamond Block, Gold Block, Iron Block, and Emerald Block) have the same property.

A block of redstone is a block which acts like a strongly-powered opaque block which cannot be turned off (it deactivates attached redstone torches, powers adjacent redstone dust and redstone repeaters, and activates adjacent mechanisms). Unlike other power sources, such as a redstone torch, it will not power adjacent opaque blocks, and unlike other powered opaque blocks, redstone wire will configure itself to point towards a block of redstone. It is moveable with pistons. Much like the iron block, gold block, diamond block, and the emerald block, it can also be used as redstone dust storage.

Gallery
Blocks of Quartz are mineral blocks crafted from Nether Quartz that are used only for decoration. In the Pocket Edition, they are one of the blocks that appear when a Nether Reactor is activated.

Unlike other mineral blocks such as the Block of Iron or Glowstone, they cannot be crafted or broken back into Nether Quartz items. Much like Sandstone, they can only be further crafted into more decorative forms.

Crafting
To craft quartz blocks in Pocket Edition, you need to use a Stonecutter rather than a Crafting Table.

Trivia

 * The block of Quartz is usually considered to be very similar to marble, and sometimes called marble incorrectly.
 * The texture for the pillar quartz block is very similar to a wooden log, and follows the same placement behavior as logs.

Crafting
Blocks of coal can only be crafted with regular coal, not charcoal.

As a crafting ingredient
A block of coal can be crafted back into 9 coal items, making it useful as a storage block.

As a fuel
Blocks of coal can be used as fuel in a furnace. One block of coal smelts 80 items, which is more than the smelting time of the 9 coal items used to craft it. Note that since only 64 items can fit in the furnace at a time, to prevent wasting fuel you should restock the smelting items before they run out, and empty the output slot before it fills up (hoppers come in handy for automating this).

Trivia

 * Cannot be crafted using charcoal due to logical issues with crafting and destroying.
 * Blocks of coal use the same texture as block of redstone, but black instead of red.
 * Blocks of coal cannot be used as fuel for the minecart with furnace.
 * A full stack can cook little over fifty times as many items as a bucket of lava.