How to Get Silk Touch in Minecraft?

Updated · Mar 04, 2023

In Minecraft, Silk Touch is an enchantment primarily used to collect blocks that would otherwise be unobtainable.

In this guide, we'll go through the two ways to modify your tools with Silk Touch, step by step.

We'll also cover some of the best applications of the enchantment and other helpful information.

What Does Silk Touch Do in Minecraft?

Silk Touch is an enchantment best applied to a pickaxe, ax, shovel, or hoe. It allows you to mine blocks themselves instead of getting the usual dropped items.

For example, when mining a coal ore with the Silk Touch enchantment, you'll get the block instead of single coal. It can be placed in a furnace to smelt up to 80 items.

The main purpose of this enchantment, however, is to collect otherwise unobtainable blocks, like glowstone or leaf blocks from trees.

It may also make some aspects of farming easier.

Overall, Silk Touch is highly valuable and, consequently, quite rare enchantment. 

Once you know how to enchant your tools with it, you can set up a server and go wild, unbothered by other players.

How to Get Silk Touch in Minecraft?

There are two ways to apply the enchantment to your tools.

1. Silk Touch from an Enchantment Table

This method will require some resources and patience.

  • Find or craft an enchantment table.
  • Place 15 bookshelves around it to get the maximum level of enchantment.
  • Prepare three Lapis Lazuli.
  • Put the tool you want to modify on the table and the Lapis Lazuli in the respectable slots.
  • Check the available options to see if you have the Minecraft Silk Touch enchantment available.

  • If yes, enchant the item and move it to your inventory.
  • If not, put another one in and transform it with one of the available enchantments to reset the table.
  • Keep going until you get Silk Touch.

2. Silk Touch with an Anvil

That is a good way to save some experience points, as the anvil doesn't require as much as the enchanting table.

  • Obtain a Minecraft Silk Touch enchantment book.
  • Find or craft an anvil.
  • Place the item you want to enhance in the first slot of the anvil and the book in the second.
  • Take the enchanted tool from the third slot and move it to your inventory.

How to Obtain a Book with the Silk Touch Enchantment in Minecraft?

This enchantment book is quite rare — you may get it as a chest loot, but the more efficient approach is to trade emeralds for it.

  • Find or craft a lectern.
  • Use it to turn an unemployed villager into a librarian.
  • See what enchantment books they offer you.
  • If you have the Silk Touch available, buy it for emeralds and apply it as explained above.
  • If not, break the lectern and place it again to reset the offers.
  • Repeat until you get the book you want.

What Is Silk Touch in Minecraft Best Used For?

Now, let's take a look at some of the best applications of the enchantment.

Mining Particular Blocks

The most common use for Silk Touch is to mine blocks that don't normally drop anything or drop a variation of themselves when mined.

That includes things like:

  • Amethyst buds and clusters
  • Bee nests, beehives, and cobwebs
  • Corals and turtle eggs
  • Diamond, gold, copper, Lapis Lazuli, and emerald ores
  • Glass and glass panes
  • Stone and glowstone
  • Ice and many others

Farming

A Silk Touch pickaxe or shovel will come in handy for farming, too.

You can use it to harvest melons, for example, without destroying the stem and having to replant.

This enchantment also allows you to collect mushroom and leaf blocks, as well as twisting and weeping vines.

You can mine grass blocks with an enchanted tool and place them anywhere you want to plant crops.

To Wrap Up

As you saw, knowing how to get Silk Touch in Minecraft can prove invaluable.

It's the only way to collect blocks that drop another related item or nothing at all when mined without an enchantment tool.

So, have fun with your new skill and enjoy all resources you'll be able to acquire now.

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Marina Stanisheva
Marina Stanisheva

With charmingly infectious enthusiasm, Marina is always thrilled by forthcoming challenges. Thanks to her knack for gathering useful (and not so much) information, she is here to get you any answer you need.