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Furnaces are important blocks that can be crafted by the player in Minecraft. Without a furnace, players would be unable to progress since they would not be able to smelt the blocks that they need or even carry out basic functions such as cooking food or even making torches.
As such, furnaces are a great thing for players to build quickly when starting any new world. With that in mind, here are five things the furnace can do.
Smelting, cooking, and 3 more uses for the normal furnace in Minecraft
Minecraft players are able to create furnaces by using eight cobblestone at a crafting table. In Java Edition, players can use any combination of cobblestone, cobbled deepslate or blackstone. However, in Bedrock Edition, players must use eight of the same block, but can use any of those variants to create the furnace. Once the player has created a furnace, they can place it where they wish and start using it.
1) Smelting
The first thing that probably comes to mind when thinking about a furnace in Minecraft is smelting. A big part of what players will be doing with the furnace is taking the ore that they mine throughout their world and placing it inside the top block of the furnace interface in order to be smelted. At the bottom opening of the furnace interface, players can place fuel.
Certain fuels are preferrable over others:
- A lava bucket is the best fuel source, providing players the ability to smelt 100 items per lava bucket.
- A block of coal (which takes nine pieces of coal to create) will burn for enough time to smelt 80 different items.
- A dried kelp block can smelt 20 items per dried kelp block.
Players should note, however, that having a block burning at the bottom of the furnace will continue to burn even if there is nothing else to smelt. Players may not want to waste their high-capacity fuel sources unless they have a lot of items to smelt. This way, players will be able to conserve their resources.
2) Light Source
A furnace can be used as a light source within Minecraft. Whenever the furnace burns, it produces a light level of 13. This is slightly less than a lit torch, because a torch will provide a light level of 14. Players who are in a pinch and need a light source to prevent mobs from spawning can throw down a furnace and start smelting or cooking items to produce the light.
Benefits of a light source:
- Ability to see in caves, or inside of a house early on, before a player has beds or torches.
- Prevents mobs from spawning if players are using it.
- The light lets players know it is in use, acting as a "power indicator."
Players should know that using the furnace as a light source is not its recommended use by any means, but it is, nonetheless, one of its capabilities that can help players out when they really need it. However, players will be smelting many items anyway, and as long as they can keep the fire going, they will have a reliable source of light.
3) Note Blocks
Note blocks are an interesting type of block in Minecraft that can help the player produce music. This can be done manually, or by connecting the block to redstone to power it. When done in this fashion, players are able to create songs that can be played using different instruments. The furnace may seem unrelated to music, but placing it under a note block will produce a "bass drum" sound.
4) Cooking
In a similar vein to smelting items in Minecraft, furnaces can be a great way for players to cook their food as well. There is no traditional "oven" block, though there is a smoker block which will cook food faster than a furnace. Even so, early in the game, players can use a furnace to prepare the raw meat they obtain and better satiate their hunger.
Players should know the following:
- Food cooked in the furnace will still require a fuel source in the bottom opening of the furnace menu.
- Players must take the food out of the furnace to gain the XP from cooking it, and also to consume the food.
- Cooked food will provide players with more hunger replenishment than raw food.
Although furnaces are able to cook food, the smoker block does cook twice as fast as the traditional furnace. For players who wish to cook a lot of food at once, or have the resources to spare, crafting a smoker will be very beneficial to them to speed up the process of cooking food.
5) Making Glass
Players are able to smell and cook many things with the furnace in Minecraft. However, they are also able to make glass with one. Glass is great for use in builds in Minecraft, because just like in real life, it lets light in while providing protection from the elements (and hostile mobs).
To create glass, players will first want to collect sand, which can be done by hand or with a shovel, and then:
- Place the sand block in the top block of the furnace interface.
- Once players place the sand in the top block, they should place a fuel source in the bottom block.
- The sand will start to be smelted, and glass will appear in the output box.
Once players have smelted the sand and turned it into glass, they will be able to place it in their builds to add a nice accent as well as lighting to anything they wish. They should keep in mind that just like real life, glass is very brittle and in case they accidentially strike it, it will shatter and will need to be re-crafted.
