Shears

Shears are a tool used primarily to shear sheep and mine a few types of blocks.

Trading
Shepherd villagers sell shears for 3–4 emeralds as part of their initial tier trades.

Shearing
Shears are the most efficient way to get wool from sheep, producing 1–3 wool blocks (as opposed to killing a sheep which produces only 1 wool block).

Shears can also be used to harvest cobweb, leaves, tall grass, ferns (both normal and 2-high), dead bushes and vines. Also, leaves harvested by shears do not decay when placed.

Shearing a mooshroom drops 5 red mushrooms and turns it into a normal cow.

Shearing a tripwire connected to tripwire hooks doesn't trigger them.

Shearing a snow golem will remove its pumpkin, without dropping the pumpkin.

In Pocket Edition, shearing a melon block will drop all 9 melon pieces.

Speed and durability
The following table shows various things about shears. Colors indicate what will be dropped when the block is broken:


 * White: The original block.
 * Blue: The Block's normal drop (i.e. string, sticks, seeds, sapling, apple).
 * Red: Nothing.

Enchantments
Shears can receive the following enchantments, but only through an anvil.


 * Efficiency
 * Unbreaking
 * Mending
 * Curse of Vanishing