How to Remove Enchantments in Minecraft with a Grindstone

To remove enchantments, put the item in a grindstone and take it out of the output slot. Every enchantment except curses is wiped, the item keeps its durability, and you get a little XP back. It works on tools, weapons, armor and enchanted books.

Making a grindstone

Craft it from 2 sticks, 1 stone slab and 2 wooden planks: stick, slab, stick across the top row, and a plank under each stick. You’ll also find grindstones in villages, where they’re the job block for weaponsmith villagers.

Removing enchantments step by step

1. Right-click the grindstone to open it.
2. Put the enchanted item in either of the two top slots.
3. Take the clean item from the output slot on the right. XP orbs pop out of the grindstone.

An enchanted book turns back into a plain book. A cursed item comes out with only its curses left.

What you get back

The XP refund is a random amount between 50% and 100% of a value based on the removed enchantments’ levels. Low-level books are barely worth it; stripping a stack of fished-up junk books or looted armor adds up, though. Sharpness V alone gives around 35 XP points on average.

What it can’t do

• Remove curses. Curse of Binding and Curse of Vanishing stay.
• Remove one enchantment and keep the rest. It’s all or nothing.
• Move an enchantment onto a book. There’s no disenchanting-to-book in vanilla Minecraft.

The hidden perk: resetting anvil costs

A grindstone also clears the item’s prior work penalty, the hidden counter that makes each anvil use cost more. If a sword has hit “Too Expensive!” and you’re willing to re-enchant it from scratch, grinding it resets the counter.

It can also repair: put two damaged copies of the same item in the top slots and you get one item with their combined durability plus a 5% bonus, with all non-curse enchantments removed. Use the anvil instead for enchanted gear you want to keep.

On Bedrock, an item needs either enchantments or an existing prior work penalty for the grindstone to accept it; on Java, it just needs enchantments.

When to use it

• Cleaning bad enchanting-table rolls (Bane of Arthropods on your new sword) so you can re-enchant it.
• Cleaning up looted armor and weapons so you can enchant them yourself on a table.
• Fixing up a gear piece whose anvil cost has climbed too high, as long as you can afford to re-enchant it.
• Turning unwanted books into XP and plain books.

For adding enchantments properly, see how to use enchanted books.