What does the Silk Touch enchantment do?

Who this is for: Minecraft players wanting to understand how Silk Touch works and when to use it effectively.


Ready to put your Silk Touch knowledge to work? Play minecraft games and start experimenting with this versatile enchantment!

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What Silk Touch Does in Minecraft

Silk Touch is a powerful enchantment that allows you to mine blocks and collect them in their original form, rather than their usual drops. When you break a block with a Silk Touch tool, you get the exact block itself instead of what it would normally give you.

Key Benefits of Silk Touch

  • Preserve valuable blocks: Mine diamond ore to get diamond ore blocks instead of just diamonds
  • Collect decorative items: Harvest grass blocks, mycelium, and podzol for landscaping
  • Move spawners: Pick up mob spawners to relocate them (though they won’t function when moved)
  • Gather ice and glass: Collect ice blocks and glass without them breaking
  • Harvest crops intact: Get melons and pumpkins as whole blocks rather than slices

What You Can Silk Touch

Block Type Normal Drop Silk Touch Drop
Diamond Ore 1 Diamond Diamond Ore Block
Glass Nothing Glass Block
Stone Cobblestone Stone Block
Grass Block Dirt Grass Block
Ice Nothing Ice Block

How to Get Silk Touch

You can obtain Silk Touch through several methods:

  • Enchanting table: Use 15 bookshelves around your enchanting table for maximum level enchantments
  • Anvil combination: Combine tools with Silk Touch books found in loot chests
  • Villager trading: Librarian villagers sometimes offer Silk Touch books
  • Fishing: Rarely catch enchanted books while fishing

Important Limitations

Silk Touch has some key restrictions you should know about. It’s mutually exclusive with Fortune, meaning you can’t have both enchantments on the same tool. You’ll need to choose between getting more drops (Fortune) or preserving the original block (Silk Touch).

Some blocks still won’t drop even with Silk Touch, including bedrock, barriers, and certain technical blocks. Mob spawners you collect won’t spawn mobs when placed elsewhere, making them purely decorative.

Whether you’re building elaborate structures or want to efficiently store valuable ores, Silk Touch opens up creative possibilities that make it one of the most sought-after enchantments for serious builders and miners.

TL;DR

Silk Touch lets you mine blocks in their original form instead of their normal drops, perfect for collecting grass blocks, ores, glass, and ice without breaking them.

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Joyst1ck

Gaming Writer & HTML5 Developer

Answering gaming questions—from Roblox and Minecraft to the latest indie hits. I write developer‑focused HTML5 articles and share practical tips on game design, monetisation, and scripting.

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