Before you can begin mining diamonds in Minecraft you will need to find and make iron ingots. Iron armor and tools can be used before finding enough diamonds to gear up in. You will also need iron to make compasses, buckets, and more useful things.
The most efficient way to make iron ingots in Minecraft is by smelting raw iron in the furnace. But you can also find iron ingots, blocks, and nuggets in some structures and dungeons.
Where To Find Raw Iron
Raw iron will drop when you mine iron ore blocks. These are found underground and look like stone blocks with sand-colored dots on them. You will need to use a stone pickaxe or better to mine the iron ore.
You will also find it useful to bring a
- Sword
- Torches
- Food
Head to the nearest cave or start mining your own way down. You can find iron at any level underground but you will have the best luck at level 16.
Mountains with lots of exposed stone are another good spot to look for iron. These biomes tend to have a lot of resources right on the surface (or above level 80) so you won’t have to dig as much.
Smelting Raw Iron
You will then need to smelt raw iron in a furnace or blast furnace. Simply craft the furnace and put raw iron in the top slot of the furnace and fuel in the bottom slot. You can use coal, wooden planks (or any wooden items), and even kelp as fuel.
After around 10 seconds and you will get an iron ingot. Collecting iron ingots from the furnace will also give you experience which you can then use to enchant your gear.
Other Ways To Get Iron Ingots In Minecraft
Apart from mining iron ore, there are a few other ways to find and make iron ingots in Minecraft. These methods are not that efficient and are more of a nice bonus to your overall stash of iron.
You can kill golems in the village or make a simple iron farm out of them. Do note that golems will fight back and they hit hard.
Whenever you are mining, traveling, or adventuring you are likely to find iron blocks and iron nuggets in different structures and dungeons which can be crafted into ingots. Put a block in the crafting slot to get nine iron ingots or fill the crafting table with nine iron nuggets to get one ingot.
