Shears

Shears

Rarity tier	Common
Durability	238
Renewable	Yes
Stackable	No

{
    "title": "Shears",
    "rows": [
        {
            "field": "Common",
            "label": "(link to Rarity article, displayed as Rarity tier)"
        },
        {
            "field": "238",
            "label": "(link to Durability article, displayed as Durability)"
        },
        {
            "field": "Yes",
            "label": "(link to Renewable resource article, displayed as Renewable)"
        },
        {
            "field": "No",
            "label": "Stackable"
        }
    ],
    "invimages": [
        "Shears"
    ],
    "images": [
        "Shears.png"
    ]
}

Shears are tools required to obtain some organic blocks or otherwise mine them faster as well as to shear certain entities and blocks.

Obtaining

Crafting

Ingredients	[hide]Crafting recipe
Iron Ingot

Despite using iron in its crafting recipe, shears cannot be smelted into iron nuggets.

Generated loot

Item	Structure	Container	Quantity	[hide]Chance
Java Edition and Bedrock Edition
Shears	Village	Shepherd's chest	1	12.3% { "item": "Shears", "stacksize": 1, "chance": 0.12311565744709374, "structure": "Village", "container": "Shepherd's chest" }

Trading

Villager	Probability		Villager wants	Player receives
	JE	BE
Novice Shepherd	40%	100%	2 × Emerald	Shears

Usage

Shearing

Shears lose 1 durability when used to shear something.

Shears can be used on a sheep to remove its coat and drop 1–3 wool of the corresponding color. The same sheep can be sheared again after it eats from a grass block or short grass to regenerate its coat.

Shearing a mooshroom drops 5 mushrooms of the corresponding color and irreversibly turns it into a normal cow.

Shearing a snow golem irreversibly removes its pumpkin, dropping it and revealing its face.

Shearing a bogged drops 2 mushrooms, which can be 2 red mushrooms, 2 brown mushrooms or one of each.

Shearing either a beehive or bee nest that is full of honey makes it drop 3 honeycombs and resets it to honey level 0. The same beehive or bee nest can be sheared again if it is able to reach full honey again. If sheared by hand without a campfire below the hive or nest, all bees within exit and all nearby bees attack the offending player.

Dispensers can use shears in any of the above listed ways, interacting with any valid block or entity in front of the dispenser's face. This decreases the shears' durability. A dispenser shearing a beehive or bee nest does not anger bees or cause them to leave even if there is not a campfire below it.

Shears can be used on an armored tamed wolf to remove its wolf armor. Only the owner of the wolf can remove armor.

Shears can be used on a harnessed happy ghast to remove its harness.

Shearing a pumpkin turns it into a carved pumpkin, dropping 4 pumpkin seeds in Java Edition or 1-3 pumpkin seeds in Bedrock Edition. If the pumpkin was attached to a pumpkin stem, the stem detaches.

Shearing the tip of cave vines, kelp, weeping vines, or twisting vines stops further growth by setting its age value to 25.

Breaking blocks

Shears use 1 durability when is used to break any block, even if it breaks instantly by hand.

Shears can be used to harvest cobwebs, leaves, short grass, short dry grass, tall dry grass, seagrass, ferns, bushes, dead bushes, nether sprouts, small dripleaves, vines, glow lichen or hanging roots and obtain them in item form. If used to break tall grass, tall seagrass or large ferns, 2 units of the respective small plant are dropped instead.

When shears are used to break weeping vines or twisting vines they are guaranteed to drop in item form instead of the usual 33% chance. This applies to vines directly broken by shears and not vines that are broken due to the destruction of their supporting vines.

Shears can also be used to break tripwire connected to a tripwire hook without activating it. Additionally, shears can be used to break wool faster than other tools.

The following table shows information about blocks that can be broken with shears. Colors indicate what gets dropped when the block is broken:

• White: The original block.
• Blue: The block's normal drop (i.e. string, sticks, seeds, saplings, apples).
• Yellow: two units of the corresponding small plant (short grass, seagrass, or ferns)
• Red: Nothing.

	No shears breaking time	Shears breaking time
Bush	0 s	0 s
Cobweb	20 s	0.4 s
Dead Bush	0 s	0 s
Fern	0 s	0 s
Glow Lichen	0.3 s	0.15 s
Hanging Roots	0 s	0 s
Large Fern	0 s	0 s
Leaves	0.35 s	0.05 s
Nether Sprouts	0 s	0 s
Pale Hanging Moss	0 s	0 s
Seagrass	0 s	0 s
Short Dry Grass	0 s	0 s
Short Grass	0 s	0 s
Small Dripleaf	0 s	0 s
Tall Dry Grass	0 s	0 s
Tall Grass	0 s	0 s
Tall Seagrass	0 s	0 s
Tripwire	0 s	0 s
Twisting Vines	0 s	0 s
Vines	0.3 s	0.15 s
Weeping Vines	0 s	0 s
Wool	1.25 s	0.25 s

Repairing

Combining

Ingredients	Crafting recipe	[hide]Description
2× Damaged Shears		The durability of the two pairs of shears is added together, plus an extra 5% durability.

Ingredients	Grinding recipe	[hide]Description
2× Damaged Shears		The durability of the two pairs of shears is added together, plus an extra 5% durability.

Unit repair

Ingredients	[hide]Anvil recipe
Damaged Shears	Shears

Shears can be combined with another pair of shears in an anvil, preserving the enchantments of both.

Enchantments

Shears can receive the following enchantments:

Name	Description	Max Level	Method	Weight
Efficiency	Increases the mining speed.	V	Anvil	10
Silk Touch‌	Causes blocks to drop themselves when mined.	I	Anvil	1
Unbreaking	Grants a chance to negate durability consumption.	III	Anvil	5
Mending	Repairs the shears when obtaining experience.	I	Anvil	2
Curse of Vanishing	The shears vanish on death, not dropping as an item.	I	Anvil	1

Sounds

Java Edition

[hide]Sounds
Sound	Subtitles	Source	Description	Resource location	Translation key	Volume	Pitch	Attenuation distance
	​Shears click	Players (player) Blocks (dispenser)	When a mooshroom is sheared	entity.mooshroom.shear	subtitles.item.shears.shear​	1.0	1.0	16
	​Shears click	Players (player) Blocks (dispenser)	When a sheep is sheared	entity.sheep.shear	subtitles.item.shears.shear​	1.0	1.0	16
	​Shears click	Players (player) Blocks (dispenser)	When a snow golem is sheared	entity.snow_golem.shear	subtitles.item.shears.shear​	1.0	1.0	16
	​Shears click	Players (player) Blocks (dispenser)	When a bogged's mushrooms are sheared	entity.bogged.shear	subtitles.item.shear​	1.0	1.0	16
	​Plant cropped	Blocks	When a growing plant is cropped	block.growing_plant.crop	subtitles.block.growing_plant.crop​	1.0	1.0	16
	​Shears scrape	Blocks	When honeycombs are harvested from a beehive	block.beehive.shear	subtitles.block.beehive.shear​	0.8	1.0/0.8/0.9	16
	​Shears carve	Blocks	When a pumpkin is carved	block.pumpkin.carve	subtitles.block.pumpkin.carve​	1.0	1.0	16
	​Item breaks	Players	When a pair of shears' durability is exhausted	entity.item.break	subtitles.entity.item.break​	0.8	0.8-1.2	16

Bedrock Edition:

[hide]Sounds
Sound	Source	Description	Resource location	Volume	Pitch
	Players	When something is sheared	mob.sheep.shear	1.0	1.0
	Players	When wolf armor is removed from a wolf	armor.unequip_wolf	1.0	1.0
	Blocks	When honeycombs are harvested from a beehive	block.beehive.shear	0.8	0.8-1.0
	Blocks	When a pumpkin is carved	pumpkin.carve	1.0	1.0
	Players	When a pair of shears' durability is exhausted	random.break	1.0	0.9

Data values

ID

Java Edition:

Name	Identifier	Form	[hide]Translation key
Shears	shears	Item	item.minecraft.shears

Bedrock Edition:

Name	Identifier	Numeric ID	Form	[hide]Translation key
Shears	shears	421	Item	item.shears.name

Advancements

Icon	Advancement	In-game description	Actual requirements (if different)
	Shear Brilliance	Remove Wolf Armor from a Wolf using Shears	—

Achievements

[hide]
Icon		Achievement	In-game description	Actual requirements (if different)	Gamerscore earned	Trophy type (PS)
PS4	Other
		Have a Shearful Day	Use Shears to obtain wool from a sheep.	—	15	Bronze

History

June 3, 2011							Shears were first mentioned by Jeb on Twitter. The tweet revealing Jeb's work on shears was written in Swedish (Jag jobbar på shears nu), which translates to "I'm working on shears now".
June 7, 2011							Jeb tweets about how shears were originally planned as a way to defuse TNT, but he dropped this shortly after deciding TNT would detonate only with redstone or fire.
[hide]Java Edition Beta
1.7							Added shears.
							Before Beta 1.7, sheep would drop 1-3 wool blocks at most when hit, but shears can harvest up to 4 wool blocks per sheep.
1.8			Pre-release				Shears can now be used to harvest a fern, vines and short grass.
[hide]Java Edition
1.0.0			Beta 1.9 Prerelease				Shears now harvest red mushrooms from a mooshroom and turn it back into a normal cow.
1.1			11w49a				Sheep now drop only 1-3 wool blocks when sheared, but they can also regrow their wool by eating grass, which is part of a plan to have animals stay in the game longer.
1.2.1			12w05a				Shears can now be used to harvest dead bushes.
			12w06a				Shears are now renewable, due to zombies occassionally dropping iron ingots.
1.3.1			12w21a				Shears can now be bought from farmer villagers for 3 emeralds each.
			12w22a				Shears can now be used to break tripwire string and not set it off.
1.4.2			12w38a				Added a sound when using shears on sheep.
1.4.6			12w50a				Shears can now be enchanted.
1.8			14w02a				Trading has been changed: Shepherd villagers now sell shears for 3–4 emeralds each.
							Farmers no longer trade shears.
			pre1				Shears now lose durability when breaking wool blocks. In previous versions, shears would take durability damage only when destroyed or when breaking short grass or leaves, the damage remaining the same for all other blocks.
1.9			15w34a				Shears may now be used in a crafting grid to zoom in maps.
			15w45a				Shears no longer zoom in maps.
			15w47b				Shears can no longer be enchanted with Silk Touch.
							Shears now lose durability when used to break any block (formerly lost durability only from leaves, cobweb, short grass, fern, tall grass, large fern, vines, tripwire and wool).
			15w47c				Shears now harvest cobweb without requiring Silk Touch.
			15w49a				Snow golem's pumpkin can now be removed with shears.
1.13			17w47a				When shears are used on an un-carved pumpkin, it now turns into a carved pumpkin and drops 4 pumpkin seeds.
1.14			18w43a				Shears placed in a dispenser can now shear sheep.
							The texture of shears has been changed.
			18w49a				Shears can now be found in chests in village shepherd houses.
			19w11a				Shepherd villagers now sell shears for 2 emeralds each.
1.15			19w34a				Shears can now be used on bee nests and beehives to harvest honeycomb.
1.16			20w15a				Shears placed in a dispenser can now shear mooshrooms and snow golems.
1.16.2			pre1				Shears are now required in order to pick up crimson and warped roots.
			pre2				Shears are no longer required to pick up crimson and warped roots..
1.17			21w05a				Shears can now be used to harvest hanging roots.
1.18			21w37a				Shears can now be used on the tip of cave vines, kelp, weeping vines, and twisting vines to stop further growth.
1.19			22w11a				Shears are now required in order to pick up mangrove leaves.
1.20.5			23w51a				Shears can now be used to remove wolf armor from wolves.
1.20.5 Experiment Update 1.21			24w09a				Shears can now be used to harvest mushrooms from bogged.
[hide]Pocket Edition Alpha
v0.2.0							Added shears.
v0.3.2							Survival players no longer start out with infinite durability shears in the inventory.
v0.4.0							Removed shears from the creative inventory.
v0.8.0			build 3				Re-added shears to creative mode.
v0.9.0			build 1				Shears can now be used to transform mooshrooms into cows.
v0.12.1			build 3				Shearing a snow golem now removes its pumpkin.
							Shears can now be enchanted in an anvil.
v0.13.0			build 1				Shears can now be used to break tripwire string without triggering it.
v0.15.0			build 1				Shears now lose durability when used to break any block.
[hide]Pocket Edition
1.0.4			alpha 1.0.4.0				Shears can now be bought from shepherd villagers.
1.1.0			alpha 1.1.0.0				Breaking a melon block with shears now always drop 9 melons.
[hide]Bedrock Edition
1.2.3			release				Shears now harvest cobweb without requiring Silk Touch.
1.4.0			beta 1.2.14.2				Shears can now be used to turn un-carved pumpkins into carved pumpkin and spit out 4 pumpkin seeds.
1.10.0			beta 1.10.0.3				Shears placed in a dispenser can now shear sheep.
							The texture of shears has been changed.
1.11.0			beta 1.11.0.1				Shears can now be found in village shepherd houses.
			beta 1.11.0.4				Shears sold by shepherd villagers now cost only 2 emeralds.
1.14.0			beta 1.14.0.1				Shears can now be used on bee nests and beehives to harvest honeycomb.
1.20.30			Preview 1.20.30.21				Added unique sounds for using shears to carve pumpkins.
1.20.60 Experiment Armadillo and Wolf Armor			Preview 1.20.60.23				Shears can now be used to remove wolf armor from wolves.
1.20.80 Experiment Update 1.21			Preview 1.20.80.21				Shears can now be used to harvest mushrooms from bogged.
1.21.60			Preview 1.21.60.21				Shears can now be used on the tip of cave vines, kelp, weeping vines, and twisting vines to stop further growth.
[hide]Legacy Console Edition
Xbox 360	Xbox One	PS3	PS4	PS Vita	Wii U	Switch
TU3	CU1	1.00	1.00	1.00	Patch 1	1.0.1	Added shears.
TU11							Mooshrooms can no longer be sheared if the spawn limit for animals is reached.
TU14		1.04					Shears can now be bought from farmer villagers for 3 emeralds each.
TU31	CU19	1.22	1.22	1.22	Patch 3		Trading has been changed: Shepherd villagers now sell shears for 3–4 emeralds each.
							Farmers no longer trade shears.
TU43	CU33	1.36	1.36	1.36	Patch 13		Shears can no longer be enchanted with Silk Touch.
TU44	CU34	1.37	1.37	1.37	Patch 14		Shears now harvest cobweb without requiring Silk Touch.
TU46	CU36	1.38	1.38	1.38	Patch 15		Snow golem's pumpkin can now be removed with shears.
TU69		1.76	1.76	1.76	Patch 38		Shears can now be used to turn regular pumpkins into carved pumpkins.
			1.90				The texture of shears has been changed.
							Shears placed in a dispenser can now shear sheep.
[hide]New Nintendo 3DS Edition
0.1.0							Added shears.

Data history

[hide]Java Edition
1.13			17w47a				Prior to The Flattening, this item's numeral ID was 359.

Issues

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

Gallery

Renders

• 

  An enchanted pair of shears.

In other media

• 

  Shears being used in a Lego set.

• 

  Makena using shears on a giant sized leaf.

External links

• Taking Inventory: Shears – Minecraft.net on September 20, 2019