The Minecraft Flint and Steel is a useful yet, dangerous tool. You can use it to light your Nether Portal, and Candles, relight your Campfire, ignite TNT, and Even Ignite Creepers. On the other hand, you know… Fire is not Steve’s best friend, especially not in survival.
How to Get Flint and Steel
Flint and Steel is pretty common, and you can find it in several places in the Overworld and in the Nether. You have almost a 50% chance to find it in Ruined Portals chests (both in the Nether and in the Overworld) and about a 1 in 5 chance to find it in chests in Nether Fortresses.
How to Make Flint and Steel
Ingredients
- 1 Flint
- 1 Iron Ingot
Flint can be found by mining gravel, and to get an Iron Ingot, you need to smelt Iron Ore in a Furnace or Blast Furnace.
Crafting
To make Flint and Steel, place an Iron Ingot and Flint inside a Crafting Table or the Crafting Grid in the inventory. It is a shapeless recipe, meaning you can put the ingredients in any way you choose.
How to Use Flint and Steel
To use Flint and Steel, you need to equip it in either you main hand or off hand, and use the left mouse button on what you want to light or ignite.
Different Uses of Flint and Steel
After it has been crafted or found in a chest, you can use it to do all sorts of things, such as light Candles, Campfires, Candles on a Cake, and light fire on top of most blocks. Additionally, it can light a Nether Portal, ignite Creepers (forcing them to explode regardless of proximity to the player), burn mobs, and create a fire that destroys dropped items and blocks.
Enchantments
Even though you can’t enchant it in an Enchantment Table, you can use an Anvil to apply it with these enchantments:
- Unbreaking (I-III)
- Mending
- Curse of Vanishing
Interesting Facts About Flint and Steel
- In Minecraft InDev, players spawned with a Flint and Steel in their inventory, and if they lost it, they had no way of acquiring another one.
- Back in the first days of Minecraft, to smelt Iron and Gold ore (before the mechanic was changed to drop Raw Iron and Raw Gold), players lighted a fire on the ground and threw the ores to the fire.
- An unenchanted Flint and Steel come with 65 durability, allowing you exactly 65 uses before it breaks. With Unbreaking III, you get an average of 260 uses before it breaks.
Finishing Thoughts
I hope you enjoyed this post about one of Minecraft’s most useful items: the Flint and Steel. If you have any questions, be sure to post them in the comments, below. See you next time!
Additional Resources
