What is Silk Touch?
Silk Touch is one of the most useful enchantments for mining. Instead of getting the usual drops (like diamonds from diamond ore), you grab the actual block itself. It’s perfect for collecting fragile blocks like glass and ice without them breaking, and it’s essential if you want to harvest ore blocks instead of resources.
How to Get Silk Touch
You have three ways to add this enchantment to your tools:
Enchanting Table
The easiest method is using an enchanting table. Grab a pickaxe, shovel, axe, or shears and throw it on the enchanting table with some lapis lazuli. You might see Silk Touch in your available enchantments. Keep in mind it’s fairly rare, so you may need to try a few times.
Anvil
If you have an enchanted book with Silk Touch, you can use an anvil to apply it to any compatible tool. Just place the tool and the book on the anvil and combine them. This costs some experience levels but is guaranteed to work.
Command
For creative mode or servers, use the command: /enchant @p silk_touch 1 to instantly enchant the item you’re holding with Silk Touch.
Which Tools Can Have Silk Touch?
Silk Touch works on four tool types:
- Pickaxes
- Shovels
- Axes
- Shears
You can also apply it to enchanted books, which is useful for combining multiple enchantments on a single tool using an anvil.
What Blocks Need Silk Touch?
Some blocks in Minecraft can ONLY be collected with Silk Touch. Without it, they break or drop nothing. Here are the main ones:
Ores and Minerals
All ore blocks require Silk Touch if you want the block itself instead of the resource. This includes coal ore, iron ore, copper ore, gold ore, diamond ore, emerald ore, lapis lazuli ore, and redstone ore. The deepslate variants also need Silk Touch.
Fragile Blocks
Glass, ice, packed ice, and blue ice will break or disappear if you mine them without Silk Touch. With the enchantment, they pop right into your inventory intact.
Special Blocks
Grass blocks, mycelium, podzol, coral blocks and fans, mushroom blocks, and the newer sculk blocks (sculk, sculk vein, sculk catalyst, sculk shrieker, sculk sensor) all require Silk Touch to collect.
Nylium and Misc
Crimson nylium, warped nylium, bee nests, and amethyst buds need Silk Touch too.
Key Details
| Max Level | Level 1 (Silk Touch I only) |
| Incompatible With | Fortune (you can’t have both) |
| Enchantment ID | minecraft:silk_touch |
| Available In | Java Edition 1.3.1+ |
Tips and Tricks
Use Silk Touch on a pickaxe when you want to farm ore blocks for decoration or for creating custom mining farms. Pair it with Unbreaking for a tool that lasts forever.
On shovels, Silk Touch is handy for collecting grass blocks to move your base or create custom terrain. Use it on shears to grab bee nests without angering the bees.
Pro tip: You can’t have Silk Touch and Fortune on the same tool. Silk Touch gets you the block, Fortune gets you more resources. Choose based on what you’re mining.
Silk Touch vs Fortune
These enchantments do different things. Silk Touch gives you the block. Fortune multiplies what the block drops (more coal from coal ore, more diamonds from diamond ore). For ore mining, decide what you actually want: the ore block itself or the resources it contains. Most players use Fortune for maximum resources, but Silk Touch is better for building with ore blocks or specific collecting goals.