To use Silk Touch in Minecraft, you first apply the Silk Touch enchantment to a compatible tool, and then simply use that tool to mine blocks.
Applying the Silk Touch Enchantment
The Silk Touch enchantment must be added to a tool before you can benefit from its effects. According to the reference, you can add the Silk Touch enchantment to any pickaxe, shovel, axe, or shears.
There are several ways to apply the enchantment:
- Using an Enchanting Table: Spend experience levels and Lapis Lazuli to enchant tools with random enchantments, including Silk Touch.
- Using an Anvil: Combine an enchanted book containing Silk Touch with an unenchanted tool, or combine two items (one with Silk Touch, one without, or both with enchantments you want to merge). This costs experience levels.
- Using a Game Command: Players with appropriate permissions can use commands (like
/enchant) to apply the enchantment directly to a tool.
It's important to note that the maximum level for the Silk Touch enchantment is Level 1.
Using an Enchanted Tool with Silk Touch
Once you have a pickaxe, shovel, axe, or shears enchanted with Silk Touch, its usage is straightforward:
- Equip the enchanted tool.
- Use the tool to break a block as you normally would.
Instead of dropping the block's usual items (like cobblestone from stone, or saplings and sticks from leaves), the block itself will drop. This is how you can add those rare and fragile items to your inventory!! that would otherwise break into different components or be destroyed.
Examples of blocks you can collect with Silk Touch:
- Stone (drops as Stone, not Cobblestone)
- Glass
- Ice
- Grass Blocks
- Mycelium
- Podzol
- Ores (drops the ore block itself, e.g., Diamond Ore)
- Enchanting Tables
- Bee Nests/Hives (if no bees are inside or you use shears)
In essence, Silk Touch preserves the block's form when mined, allowing you to relocate or store blocks that usually require specific methods or are unobtainable otherwise.
