Axes are tools used to speed up the process of collecting wood-type blocks, some types of plants, and for stripping logs.
Sources
Axes are made from 6 different materials (from lowest to highest durability):
Wooden axes appear in most bonus chests, and may contain stone axes on occasion. Stone axes also appear in some igloo basements, and an Efficiency I iron axe can be found in some woodland mansion rooms. Weaponsmith and toolsmith villagers sell iron axes for 6-8 emeralds, and enchanted diamond axes for 9-12 emeralds. Vindicators and pillagers will sometimes drop iron axes upon death. Alternatively, they can be made in a crafting table in the following arrangement:
| Axe | ||
|---|---|---|
| Material | Material | None |
| Material | Stick | None |
| None | Stick | None |
Uses
As a tool
The primary role of an axe is to quicken the collection of wood, wood-type blocks and plants such as pumpkins and melons. A player may choose to do this by hand but at a reduced pace. A gold axe can mine wood and other wooden items the quickest but has much lower durability. Vindicators use iron axes to attack villagers, player(s) and iron golems during raids.
What It Can Break
- Wood (any type)
- Wooden planks, stairs, and slabs
- Crafting tables
- Wooden doors and trapdoors
- Wooden fences and fence gates
- Wooden buttons
- Wooden pressure plates
- Daylight detector
- Signs
- Chests and trapped chest
- Looms
- Lecterns
- Paintings and Item Frames
- Pumpkins
- Melons
- Campfires (With Silk Touch only)
As a Weapon
Axes can be also used as a melee weapon. They also have a unique property that has a 25% chance of disabling a shield for 5 seconds, making it also useful in PvP. They deal more damage than swords, and a wooden axe has the same damage as a diamond sword. However, there are three drawbacks as a weapon:
- Attacking with an axe will cause it to take double durability damage.
- Like swords, they require an anvil to enchant with weapon-based enchantments.
- The cooldown for an axe is longer than that of a sword.
Trivia
- Axes used to be double-sided in Indev (see gallery).
- In the language files, axes are referred to as "hatchets."
- All axe variants are renewable, including diamond axe, despite diamonds being non-renewable. This is because toolsmith and weaponsmith villagers both sell them in the enchanted form for emeralds.
- The chance of an axe disabling a shield is increased with the efficiency enchantment (+5% per level), or by sprint-attacking (100% chance).
- As of Minecraft 1.13 right-clicking on a wood log with an axe turns the block into a stripped log. This transformation can't be reversed.
- When Vindicators hold axes, they deal more damage than the axe itself. The former deals 9 damage, while the player wielding an iron axe causes 5 damage.
- Iron and stone axes are stronger than diamond swords in Java Edition.
