Flint and Steel is an incredibly useful tool, especially when you’re first starting in Minecraft. It’s a necessity for traveling to the Nether, helps you keep certain light blocks going if anything happens, and is overall a tool that every Minecraft should have in their arsenal. This guide will teach you how to craft and use flint and steel in Bedrock edition, Java edition, Education edition, and Pocket edition (PE).
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How to Get Flint and Steel in Minecraft
There are two main ways to get Flint and Steel. The first is to craft it yourself using iron ingots and flint, while the second is by finding it in chests.
Flint and Steel Crafting Recipe
The crafting recipe for flint and steel is one of the easiest there is in Minecraft. It can be created on either a crafting table’s 3×3 crafting grid or the 2×2 crafting menu in your inventory. Just place one piece of flint and one iron ingot into any box of the crafting grid to produce one flint and steel.
How to Get Flint in Minecraft
The main way to get flint is by mining gravel blocks. Each block of gravel has a 10% chance of dropping a flint. A Fortune I shovel increases this chance to 16%, a Fortune II shovel increases it to 25%, and a Fortune III shovel increases it to a whopping 100% chance.
A Novice Fletcher villager will also trade one Emerald and 10 gravel for 10 flint. However, by the time you mine the gravel, you should already have one flint. This, in combination with paying emeralds, makes the trade not worth it.
Lastly, there is about a 46% chance of getting flint from a ruined portal chest and a 55% chance of getting it from the chest in a Fletcher Villager’s house.
How to Get an Iron Ingot in Minecraft
The primary way to get iron ingots is by mining and smelting iron ore. Iron ore can spawn anywhere between Y-Level -64 and Y-Level 320. Stony Shore, Stony Mountain, and Windswept biomes will often have coal and iron ore deposits that are visible from the surface.
After obtaining at least one raw iron from mining, smelt it in a furnace or blast furnace to create an iron ingot.
If you’d like more information on the process, or just want to see all of the ways to obtain iron, we have more details in our Crafting Chains Guide.
Finding Flint and Steel as Chest Loot
The easiest place to find a Flint and Steel is at a ruined Nether Portal. The chests at each portal have a chance to contain one or more flint and steels.
The second place where you can find a chest with Flint and Steel is a Nether Fortress. This is much more dangerous, but perfect if you need to relight a portal that’s gone out. Nether Fortress chests have a 19% chance of holding a flint and steel.
Flint and Steel Uses in Minecraft
The first thing that a Flint and Steel can be used for is lighting a Nether Portal. Once you have the frame built, use the flint and steel on the inner side of any obsidian block making up the frame.
A Flint and Steel can also be used to light unlit campfires and candles.
It can be placed in a dispenser to consistently light fires and activate the block directly in front of the dispenser.
The last way to use a Flint and Steel is to start explosions. This is usually used to make TNT explode, but it can also force Creepers to explode.
Flint and Steel Durability and Enchantments
Flint and Steel have a starting durability of 64, meaning that once they have set 64 fires they will break and disappear. However, this can be avoided by enchanting your Flint and Steel after crafting it. They can be enchanted with both Unbreaking and Mending, meaning you would never have to make another Flint and Steel again unless you are using them in a dispenser set-up.
