3 Ways to Make a Furnace in Minecraft

Why the Furnace Is a Big Deal (Even If It’s Literally Just a Box)

The furnace is the bridge between “I have resources” and “I can do something with them.”
Found iron? Furnace turns it into ingots. Dug sand? Furnace turns it into glass.
Mined cobblestone? Furnace turns it back into smooth stone so your builds stop looking like a medieval parking lot.

It’s also a sneaky XP machine. Smelting and then collecting items from the output slot can reward experienceso even when you’re “just cooking,”
you’re quietly leveling up toward enchantments.

What Counts as “Furnace Stone” (So You Don’t Rage-Click the Crafting Grid)

Traditionally, furnaces were made from cobblestone. Later updates expanded the recipe so certain “cobble-like” stones can stand in.
Today, the most common accepted options are:

• Cobblestone (the classic Overworld default)
• Blackstone (Nether-friendly “cobble substitute”)
• Cobbled Deepslate (deep underground cobble substitute)

The shape never changes: place 8 blocks around the edge of the 3×3 grid, leaving the center empty.
If you’re using the tiny 2×2 crafting grid in your inventory, that’s not a furnace recipethat’s a recipe for disappointment.

Way 1: The Classic Cobblestone Furnace (Overworld Standard Issue)

What You Need

• 8 cobblestone
• 1 crafting table
• A pickaxe (because punching stone is a lifestyle choice, not a strategy)

Step-by-Step: How to Get Cobblestone Fast

1. Make a wooden pickaxe (3 planks + 2 sticks).
2. Mine stone blocksstone drops cobblestone when mined with a pickaxe.
3. Collect at least 8 cobblestone.

Craft the Furnace

1. Open your Crafting Table (3×3 grid).
2. Place cobblestone in all slots except the centerthink “hollow square.”
3. Take the furnace from the output slot and place it wherever your base is currently pretending to be permanent.

Why This Way Rocks

Cobblestone is everywhere. It’s the easiest, most reliable path to a furnace on Day 1especially if you’re building your starter base near a hill,
a cave entrance, or the kind of place where you “accidentally” fall into a ravine while admiring the scenery.

Pro Tip: The “Infinite Cobble” Lifestyle

If you like efficiency (or just enjoy watching blocks appear), a simple cobblestone generator can give you endless cobble.
That means endless furnaces, endless building blocks, and endless opportunities to forget where you placed your main furnace.

Way 2: The Nether-Friendly Blackstone Furnace (When You’re Living on Lava Time)

When This Is the Best Choice

If you’re in the Nether early (speedrunning, exploring, or making questionable portal decisions), cobblestone may not be convenient.
Blackstone solves that. It’s plentiful in many Nether biomes and acts as a practical cobblestone substitute for furnace crafting.

What You Need

• 8 blackstone
• 1 crafting table (bring it, or craft it if you have wood)
• A pickaxe (yes, still)

How to Get Blackstone

Mine blackstone in the Nether (you’ll commonly spot it around basalt deltas and in clusters near lava oceans and Nether terrain features).
It drops as blackstone when mined with a pickaxe, so it’s straightforward: mine 8, craft 1 furnace.

Craft the Furnace (Same Pattern, Different Drama)

1. Open the crafting table.
2. Place blackstone around the edge slots, leaving the center empty.
3. Collect your furnace and immediately feel like you’ve discovered fire. (Technically you did.)

Why You’ll Love It

Blackstone lets you craft a furnace without returning to the Overworld for cobblestone.
That means you can smelt things like ancient debris into netherite scraps sooner, process food, or just build a Nether outpost
that looks intentional instead of “I panicked and placed blocks.”

Way 3: The Deep-Mining Cobbled Deepslate Furnace (For the Underground Grind)

When This Is the Best Choice

Modern Minecraft pushes exploration deeper, and deepslate layers are a big part of that.
When you’re mining far underground, you’ll gather cobbled deepslate by the inventory-full.
If your version supports it, that cobbled deepslate can be used to craft a furnaceright there in the depthswithout needing to haul cobblestone down.

What You Need

• 8 cobbled deepslate
• 1 crafting table
• A pickaxe (preferably not wooden, unless you enjoy slow cinema)

How to Get Cobbled Deepslate

Mine deepslate blocks deep underground. They drop cobbled deepslate when mined with a pickaxe.
You’ll get plenty while looking for diamonds, iron, redstone, or the cave you swear was “right here a second ago.”

Craft the Furnace

1. Open the crafting table.
2. Place cobbled deepslate in the 8 edge slots, leaving the center empty.
3. Grab your furnace and celebrate crafting infrastructure in the middle of nowhere like a true survival engineer.

Why It’s Surprisingly Practical

Deep mining is often where you need furnaces the mostsmelting iron for more pickaxes, making smooth stone for a blast furnace upgrade later,
or turning raw food into “not a health risk.” Crafting a furnace with what you’re already mining keeps momentum going.

Use Your Furnace Like a Pro (Fuel, Speed, Upgrades, and Less Wasted Time)

How the Furnace UI Works

• Top slot: item to smelt/cook (ore, raw food, sand, clay, etc.)
• Bottom slot: fuel (coal, charcoal, lava bucket, wood items, and more)
• Right slot: output (your shiny new thing)

Each smelt/cook takes about 10 seconds per item in a standard furnace.
That doesn’t sound like much until you’re processing a stack of iron while your friends are already wearing full armor and doing parkour on your roof.

Fuel 101: What Burns Best (and What Burns Like a Bad Idea)

Many items can be used as fuel, but not all fuels are created equal. Here are practical, commonly cited burn values:

Don’t Waste Burn Time (Your Furnace Has Feelings)

Furnaces consume fuel over time once lit, so the best habit is to load enough items to take advantage of the fuel you’re using.
Tossing one log in to cook one fish is like paying for a full buffet and leaving after a single crouton.

Want Speed? Upgrade to Specialized Smelters

The regular furnace is the all-purpose workhorse: it smelts almost everything that has a smelting recipe.
But if you want speed, two specialized blocks are worth knowing:

• Blast Furnace: smelts ores/raw metals and metal gear about twice as fast as a regular furnace,
  but it can’t cook food.
• Smoker: cooks food about twice as fast as a regular furnace,
  but it won’t smelt ores into ingots.

Translation: keep your regular furnace for general tasks, then add a blast furnace for metal processing and a smoker for food once you can afford the materials.
It’s the Minecraft version of running a kitchen with both an oven and an air fryerexcept everything still runs on rocks and optimism.

Automation: The “I’m Busy Mining” Furnace Setup

If you’re tired of babysitting smelts, hoppers are your best friend. A basic setup:

• Hopper into the top of the furnace for input items
• Hopper into the side/back for fuel
• Hopper or chest under the furnace for output collection

Even a small “furnace line” (two to eight furnaces in a row) can dramatically speed up bulk processing,
especially when you return from mining with stacks of raw iron or cobblestone to convert.

Troubleshooting: “Why Can’t I Craft a Furnace?!”

1) You’re Using the 2×2 Inventory Grid

The furnace recipe needs a 3×3 grid. That means you must use a crafting table.
If you’re trying to craft it in your inventory crafting slots, the game will politely refuse.

2) You’re Using the Wrong Block

“Stone” is not the same as “cobblestone.” If you mined stone with Silk Touch, you might be holding stone blocks instead of cobblestone.
Also, smooth stone isn’t a furnace ingredient. The recipe wants the “cobbled” variants.

3) Your Stone Variant Isn’t Supported in Your Version

Most modern versions support multiple cobble-like stones (especially blackstone and cobbled deepslate),
but if you’re on an older version, the crafting recipe may be more limited. If the fancy stone isn’t working,
switch to classic cobblestone and you’ll be back in business.

4) The Shape Is Off

The furnace recipe is a hollow square: eight blocks on the outside, center empty.
If you fill the center, you’re not making a furnaceyou’re making a “stone donut,” which is not a recognized Minecraft appliance.

of Furnace Experiences (Because Every World Has a “First Smelt” Moment)

The furnace is one of those blocks that quietly defines your whole Minecraft rhythm. The first time you place one in a fresh survival world,
it feels like crossing an invisible line: you’re no longer just running around grabbing sticks and hoping the sun comes up fast.
You’re building a system. A tiny, smoky system that turns chaos into progress.

Early on, the furnace is usually born out of necessity and mild panic. You’ve got raw meat, the hunger bar is shrinking,
and your “plan” is basically to keep moving until something stops trying to eat you. That’s when the cobblestone furnace shines.
You mine a handful of stone, slap together the hollow-square recipe, and suddenly you can cook dinner, smelt iron, and make torches in bulk.
The base might still be a dirt rectangle with trust issues, but the furnace makes it feel like a home.

Then there’s the Nether furnace experienceequal parts genius and “how did I end up here?” Blackstone crafting is a lifesaver in worlds
where you jump dimensions early. You realize you don’t need to crawl back through a portal just to get cobblestone.
You mine blackstone, craft the furnace, and set up a little outpost that says, “Yes, I live next to lava. No, I’m not okay.”
That first Nether smeltmaybe ancient debris into netherite scrap, maybe just cooking food so you don’t starve while sprinting from piglins
feels absurdly satisfying, like you’ve installed a kitchen in a volcano.

Deep underground, cobbled deepslate has its own vibe. Mining at lower levels is often where you’re most resource-rich and time-poor.
Your inventory fills with ore and deepslate, and you’re faced with a choice: return to the surface for processing,
or build a functional workstation right there in the caves. Crafting a furnace from cobbled deepslate (when supported) turns an underground tunnel
into a working camp. You smelt iron for more pickaxes, cook food, and keep goingno “one last trip back” required.
It’s the difference between a mining session that stalls out and one that snowballs into real progress.

And eventually, furnaces become part of your world’s personality. Maybe you build a cozy kitchen with a smoker for food,
a blast furnace for metals, and a chest system that makes you feel like an industrial tycoon. Maybe you scatter furnaces everywhere
because you keep forgetting where you put the first one (a classic). Either way, the furnace is the block you return to again and again,
not because it’s flashy, but because it’s dependable. In a game full of dragons, portals, and ancient cities,
sometimes the real hero is the stone box that keeps dinner from being raw.

Conclusion

Making a furnace in Minecraft boils down to one simple idea: 8 cobble-like stones in a hollow square on a crafting table.
The “three ways” are really three survival-friendly options depending on your environment:
cobblestone in the Overworld, blackstone in the Nether, and cobbled deepslate deep underground (when your version supports it).

Once you’ve got it, treat your furnace like the productivity tool it is: pick efficient fuel, smelt in batches, automate with hoppers when you can,
and upgrade to a blast furnace or smoker when speed matters. Your future selfwearing enchanted armor and eating cooked steakwill thank you.