Iron Axe

Iron Axe

Rarity tier	Common
Durability	250 ‌ / 251 ‌
Renewable	Yes
Stackable	No

{
    "title": "Iron Axe",
    "rows": [
        {
            "field": "Common",
            "label": "(link to Rarity article, displayed as Rarity tier)"
        },
        {
            "field": "250 ‌<sup class=\"noprint nowrap Inline-Template \" title=\"\">[<i><span title=\"This statement only applies to Java Edition\">(link to Java Edition article, displayed as JE)  only</span></i>]</sup> / 251 ‌<sup class=\"noprint nowrap Inline-Template \" title=\"\">[<i><span title=\"This statement only applies to Bedrock Edition\">(link to Bedrock Edition article, displayed as BE)  only</span></i>]</sup>",
            "label": "(link to Durability article, displayed as Durability)"
        },
        {
            "field": "Yes",
            "label": "(link to Renewable resource article, displayed as Renewable)"
        },
        {
            "field": "No",
            "label": "Stackable"
        }
    ],
    "invimages": [
        "Iron Axe"
    ],
    "images": [
        "Iron Axe.png",
        "Enchanted Iron Axe.gif"
    ]
}

Iron axes are a tier of axes and can be crafted from iron ingots, found in a loot chest, or bought from a weaponsmith. Like all axes, it can be used to cut down trees faster, but also as a melee weapon, and it can disable shields.

Obtaining

Crafting

Ingredients	[hide]Crafting recipe
Iron Ingot + Stick

Generated loot

Item	Structure	Container	Quantity	[hide]Chance
Java Edition
Iron Axe	Ocean ruins	Warm ruins suspicious sand	1	6.7% { "item": "Iron Axe", "stacksize": 1, "chance": 0.06666666666666665, "structure": "Ocean ruins", "container": "Warm ruins suspicious sand" }
		Cold ruins suspicious gravel	1	6.7% { "item": "Iron Axe", "stacksize": 1, "chance": 0.06666666666666665, "structure": "Ocean Ruins", "container": "Cold ruins suspicious gravel" }
Enchanted Iron Axe	Trial Chambers	Corridor chest	1	10.2% { "item": "Enchanted Iron Axe", "stacksize": 1, "chance": 0.101618311707246, "structure": "Trial Chambers", "container": "Corridor chest" }
Enchanted Iron Axe	Trial Chambers	Vault and reward chest	1	7% { "item": "Enchanted Iron Axe", "stacksize": 1, "chance": 0.06956521739130439, "structure": "Trial Chambers", "container": "Vault and reward chest" }
Enchanted Iron Axe	Trial Chambers	Corridor chest	1	10.2% { "item": "Enchanted Iron Axe", "stacksize": 1, "chance": 0.101618311707246, "structure": "Trial Chambers", "container": "Corridor chest" }
Bedrock Edition
Iron Axe	Ocean ruins	Warm ruins suspicious sand	1	6.7% { "item": "Iron Axe", "stacksize": 1, "chance": 0.06666666666666665, "structure": "Ocean ruins", "container": "Warm ruins suspicious sand" }
		Cold ruins suspicious gravel	1	6.7% { "item": "Iron Axe", "stacksize": 1, "chance": 0.06666666666666665, "structure": "Ocean Ruins", "container": "Cold ruins suspicious gravel" }
Enchanted Iron Axe	Trial Chambers	Corridor chest	1	10.2% { "item": "Enchanted Iron Axe", "stacksize": 1, "chance": 0.101618311707246, "structure": "Trial Chambers", "container": "Corridor chest" }
Enchanted Iron Axe	Trial Chambers	Vault and reward chest	1	1.7% { "item": "Enchanted Iron Axe", "stacksize": 1, "chance": 0.017391304347826098, "structure": "Trial Chambers", "container": "Vault and reward chest" }
Enchanted Iron Axe	Trial Chambers	Corridor chest	1	10.2% { "item": "Enchanted Iron Axe", "stacksize": 1, "chance": 0.101618311707246, "structure": "Trial Chambers", "container": "Corridor chest" }

Mob loot

Equipment

A vindicator spawns with an iron axe and has an 8.5% chance (9.5% with Looting I, 10.5% with Looting II, and 11.5% with Looting III) of dropping it upon death by the player. It is usually heavily damaged and is sometimes enchanted.

Raids

In Bedrock Edition, Vindicator and pillagers that spawn in raids have a 4.1% chance (5.12% on hard) to drop a badly-damaged iron axe, which is sometimes enchanted with a random enchantment. A vindicator can drop 2 iron axes, one from natural equipment and one from raid drops.

Trading

Villager	Probability		Villager wants	Player receives
	JE	BE
Journeyman Toolsmith	40%	25%	6–20 × Emerald	Enchanted Iron Axe
Novice Weaponsmith	67%	100%	3 × Emerald	Iron Axe

Villager gifts

Weaponsmith villagers occasionally throw iron axes at players with the Hero of the Village status effect.‌

Usage

Breaking

Iron axes can break wood-related blocks faster than other tools. Breaking a block costs 1 durability.

Stripping

Using an iron axe on a log, wood block, or block of bamboo turns it into a stripped log, stripped wood, or block of stripped bamboo, respectively. This costs 1 point of durability of the axe.

Copper blocks

Using an iron axe on a waxed or oxidized copper block removes the wax if it has any, or otherwise remove a level of oxidization. This costs 1 point of durability.

Weapon

When used as a weapon, an iron axe loses 2 durability points.

Java Edition

Attacking a shield user with an axe disables the use of the shield for 5 seconds. Vindicators, piglin brutes, or other mobs with commands always disable the player's shield. Damage done when using an axe as a weapon is more than that of a sword of the same tier, though they take longer than a sword to recover, resulting in lower DPS.

Attack Damage	Attack Speed	Recovery time	DPS	Lifetime damage inflicted
9HP	0.9	1.11 seconds (22.2 game ticks)	8.1	1125HP × 562.5

Bedrock Edition

Iron axes attack instantly with no cooldown and deal 5HP damage, but they lower the durability of armor and shields faster than a sword would do.

Repairing

Combining

Ingredients	Crafting recipe	[hide]Description
Damaged Iron Axe		The durability of the two axes is added together, plus an extra 3 points of durability.

Ingredients	Grinding recipe	[hide]Description
2× Damaged Iron Axe		The durability of the two axes is added together, plus an extra 3 points of durability.

Unit repair

Ingredients	[hide]Anvil recipe
Damaged Iron Axe + Iron Ingot	Iron Axe

An iron axe can be repaired in an anvil by adding iron ingot, with each ingot restoring 25% of the axe's maximum durability, rounded down. Two iron axes can also be combined in an anvil. Both methods preserve the axe's enchantments.

Enchantments

An iron axe can receive the following enchantments:

Name	Description	Max Level	Method	Weight
Efficiency	Increases the mining speed.	V	Enchanting Table Anvil	10
Fortune	Increases the amount of drops when mining.	III	Enchanting Table Anvil	2
Silk Touch	Causes blocks to drop themselves when mined.	I	Enchanting Table Anvil	1
Sharpness	Increases the damage dealt.	V	Enchanting Table Anvil	10
Smite	Increases the damage dealt to undead.	V	Enchanting Table Anvil	5
Bane of Arthropods	Increases the damage dealt to arthropods.	V	Enchanting Table Anvil	5
Cleaving​	Increases the damage and shield cooldown time dealt.	III	Enchanting Table Anvil
Looting​	Increases the amount of drops when killing an entity with the axe.	III	Anvil	2
Knockback​	Increases the knockback dealt.	II	Anvil	5
Fire Aspect​	Ignites any targets hit by the axe and lights unlit candles, campfires, and Block of TNT when used.	II	Anvil	2
Sweeping Edge​	Increases the sweeping damage dealt.	III	Anvil	2
Unbreaking	Grants a chance to negate durability consumption.	III	Enchanting Table Anvil	5
Mending	Repairs the axe when obtaining experience.	I	Anvil	2
Curse of Vanishing	The axe vanishes on death, not dropping as an item.	I	Anvil	1

Smelting ingredient

Name	Ingredients	[hide]Smelting recipe
Iron Nugget	Iron Axe + Any fuel	0.1

Sounds

Java Edition:

[hide] v t e Sounds
Sound	Subtitles	Source	Description	Resource location	Translation key	Volume	Pitch	Attenuation distance
	​Axe strips	Blocks	When an axe strips a log or wood block	item.axe.strip	subtitles.item.axe.strip​	0.9	1.0/0.85	16
	​Wax off	Blocks	When an axe unwaxes a block of copper	item.axe.wax_off	subtitles.item.axe.wax_off​	1.0	0.9/1.1/1.0	16
	​Axe scrapes	Blocks	When an axe deoxidizes a block of copper	item.axe.scrape	subtitles.item.axe.scrape​	1.0	1.0/0.9/1.1	16
	​Item breaks	Players	When an axe's durability is exhausted	entity.item.break	subtitles.entity.item.break​	0.8	0.8-1.2	16

Bedrock Edition:

[hide] v t e Sounds
Sound	Source	Description	Resource location	Volume	Pitch
	Blocks	When an axe strips a log or wood block	use.wood	1.0	0.8
	Blocks	When an axe strips a stem or hyphae block	use.stem	1.0	0.8
	Players	When an axe strips a block of bamboo	step.bamboo_wood	1.0	0.8
	Players	When an axe strips a cherry log or cherry wood block	step.cherry_wood	1.0	0.8
	Friendly Creatures	When an axe unwaxes a block of copper ​	copper.wax.off	1.0	0.8-1.2
	Friendly Creatures	When an axe deoxidizes a block of copper	scrape	1.0	0.8-1.2
	Players	When an axe's durability is exhausted	random.break	1.0	0.9

Data values

ID

Java Edition:

Name	Identifier	Form	[hide]Translation key
Iron Axe	iron_axe	Item	item.minecraft.iron_axe

Bedrock Edition:

Name	Identifier	Numeric ID	Form	[hide]Translation key
Iron Axe	iron_axe	298	Item	item.iron_axe.name

Achievements

[hide]
Icon		Achievement	In-game description	Actual requirements (if different)	Gamerscore earned	Trophy type (PS)
PS4	Other
		MOAR Tools	Construct one type of each tool.	Construct one pickaxe, one shovel, one axe, and one hoe with the same material.	15	Bronze

Advancements

Icon	Advancement	In-game description	Actual requirements (if different)
	Wax Off	Scrape Wax off of a Copper block!	Use an axe to revert any of these 9 waxed variants of copper blocks: The block can be in any of its four oxidation stages.

History

[hide]Java Edition Indev
0.31			20100110				Added iron axes.
							An axe is used to gather wood 400% faster than by hand.
							When starting in a new world, the player is given an axe.
			20100122				The texture of axes has been changed. Half of the axe head has been removed.
			20100124-2119				The texture of axes has been changed again. The other axe head is now used instead.
							A complete toolset is no longer given to the player on starting a new world, therefore axes are no longer given. Instead, there are multiple chests in the later called "Indev House" containing a stack of most accessible blocks/items including tools.
			20100128-2200				The texture of iron axes has been changed.
			20100129-1447				Iron axes can now be crafted.
			20100131				Iron axes now have durability which is 129 points.
[hide]Java Edition
1.3.1			12w16a				Iron axes are now found in the new bonus chests.
			12w21a				Blacksmith villagers now sell 1 iron axe for 6–7 emeralds.
1.6.1			13w21a				Instead of replacing the barehanded damage (1HP), iron axes now add their damage onto the barehanded damage, which results in them doing 1HP more damage than before.
1.8			14w02a				Weapon smith villagers now sell 1 iron axe for 6–8 emeralds.
1.9			15w34a				Iron axes now use the attack speed combat mechanic meter. The time it takes for the meter to fill up for an axe is 1.2 seconds.
			15w34b				Iron axes now have an attack speed of 0.8, taking about 1.25 seconds to fill the attack meter.
			15w34c				Iron axes do 4HP more damage than previously.
							Iron axes now have an attack speed of 0.85.
							Iron axes now have a chance to temporarily disable shield use.
			15w35a				The damage of iron axes has been reduced by 1HP.
							The speed of iron axes has been increased to 0.9.
			15w37a				Iron axes now have an attack speed of 0.9.
1.11			16w35a				An iron axe now has a 100% chance of disabling shield use, and the chance is no longer increased by Efficiency level and whether or not the user is sprinting.
			16w39a				An iron axe enchanted with Efficiency I can now be found in the "Tree-chopping room" in woodland mansions.
1.11.1			16w50a				Iron axes now smelt down into one of their respective nuggets.
1.13			18w07a				Using an iron axe on a block of wood or log now turns it into a stripped block of wood or log.
			pre2				Using an iron axe on a bark now turns it into a stripped bark.
1.14			18w43a				The texture of iron axes has been changed.
			19w11a				Weaponsmith villagers now sell 1 iron axe for 3 emeralds.
							Toolsmith villagers now sell enchanted iron axes.
			19w13a				Weaponsmith villagers now give iron axes to players under the Hero of the Village effect.
1.17			21w11a				Iron axes can now be used to scrape wax and oxidation off copper blocks.
1.20			23w12a				Iron axes can now be found in suspicious gravel and suspicious sand in cold and warm ocean ruins.
1.20.3 Experiment Update 1.21			23w45a				Enchanted iron axes can now be found in trial chambers reward chests and corridor chests.
1.20.5			24w03a				Iron axes can now receive sharpness, smite, and bane of arthropods through an enchanting table, rather than only through an anvil.
1.20.5 Experiment Update 1.21			24w05a				Enchanted iron axes can now be ejected as loot from vaults.
1.20.5			24w12a				Iron axes can no longer receive sharpness, smite, and bane of arthropods through an enchanting table.
[hide]Upcoming Java Edition
Combat Tests			1.14.3 - Combat Test				The attack speed for iron axes has been increased to 2.
							Iron axes now deal 1HP more damage than iron swords.
			Combat Test 3				The Chopping enchantment has been added for iron axes, which adds 1 damage and 0.5 seconds (10 game ticks) of shield stunning per level and is mutually exclusive with Sharpness.
							Iron axes now always disable shields for 1.6 seconds (32 game ticks), instead of having a 25% to disable them for 5 seconds (100 game ticks).
							Iron axes now take 1 damage when attacking instead of 2.
							The Sweeping Edge enchantment can now be applied to iron axes.
			Combat Test 4				Knockback, Looting, and Fire Aspect enchantments can now be applied to iron axes.
[hide]Pocket Edition Alpha
v0.2.0							Added iron axes. They actually function as tools despite being unobtainable by normal means.
v0.3.2							Iron axes can now be crafted with iron ingots and sticks.
v0.11.0			build 11				Iron axes are now available in the creative inventory.
			build 12				Iron axes have been removed from creative.
			build 13				Iron axes have been re-added to creative mode.
v0.12.1			build 1				Instead of replacing the barehanded damage (1HP), iron axes now add their damage onto the barehanded damage, which results in them doing 1HP more damage than before.
[hide]Pocket Edition
1.0.4			alpha 1.0.4.0				Weaponsmith villagers now sell iron axes for 6-8 emeralds as part of their first tier trades.
1.1.0			alpha 1.1.0.0				Iron axes are now smeltable.
							Iron axes with the Efficiency I enchantment can now be found inside chests in woodland mansions.
							Added vindicators, who rarely drop iron axes.
[hide]Bedrock Edition
1.2.13			beta 1.2.13.8				Using an iron axe on a log now turns it into a stripped log.
1.10.0			beta 1.10.0.3				The texture of iron axes has been changed.
1.11.0			beta 1.11.0.4				Vindicators and pillagers that spawn in raids can now drop an iron axe.
							Weaponsmith villagers now sell iron axes for 3 emeralds as part of their fourth tier trades.
							Enchanted iron axes can now be bought from toolsmith villagers.
1.16.220			beta 1.16.220.52				Iron axes can now be used to scrape wax off copper blocks.
1.18.30			Preview 1.18.30.27				Iron axes can now temporarily disable shield use. This is not mentioned in the official changelog.
1.20.60 Experiment Update 1.21			Preview 1.20.60.20				Enchanted iron axes can now be found in trial chambers reward chests and corridor chests.
1.20.70 Experiment Update 1.21			Preview 1.20.70.21				Enchanted iron axes can now be ejected as loot from vaults.
[hide]Legacy Console Edition
Xbox 360	Xbox One	PS3	PS4	PS Vita	Wii U	Switch
TU1	CU1	1.00	1.00	1.00	Patch 1	1.0.1	Added iron axes.
TU14		1.04					Blacksmith villagers now sell 1 iron axe for 6–7 emeralds.
TU19	CU7	1.12	1.12	1.12			Instead of replacing the barehanded damage (1HP), iron axes now add their damage onto the barehanded damage, which results in them doing 1HP more damage than before.
TU31	CU19	1.22	1.22	1.22	Patch 3		Weapon smith villagers now sell 1 iron axe for 6–8 emeralds.
TU36	CU25	1.28	1.28	1.28	Patch 7		The attack damage of iron axes is now shown above the hotbar when switching to it if the item has less than 3 enchantments.
TU53	CU43	1.49	1.50	1.49	Patch 23	1.0.3	Iron axes now smelt down into iron nuggets.
TU54	CU44	1.52	1.52	1.52	Patch 24	1.0.4	An iron axe enchanted with Efficiency I can now be found in the "Tree-chopping room" in woodland mansions.
TU69		1.76	1.76	1.76	Patch 38		Using an iron axe on a log now turns it into a stripped log.
			1.90				The texture of iron axes have been changed.
			1.91				Vindicators and pillagers that spawn in raids can now drop an iron axe.
[hide]New Nintendo 3DS Edition
0.1.0							Added iron axes.

Data history

[hide]Java Edition
1.13			17w47a				Prior to The Flattening, this item's numeral ID was 258.

Issues

Issues relating to "Iron Axe" are maintained on the bug tracker. Issues should be reported and viewed there.