How to Make Flint and Steel in Minecraft and Get Flint Fast
One iron ingot and 1 flint in any grid make flint and steel. How to make flint and steel in Minecraft, get flint from gravel fast, and what you can light.
Combine 1 iron ingot and 1 flint in any crafting grid to make flint and steel. The recipe is shapeless: the diagonal layout above works, but so does any other arrangement, and you don’t need a crafting table.
The iron is easy. The flint is the part that slows people down.
Getting flint
Flint drops from gravel. Each gravel block you break has a 10% chance to drop flint instead of itself, so expect to dig around ten gravel for one flint. Two shortcuts:
- Place and break. Mine a gravel block, place it back down, and mine it again. Repeat until flint drops. You only need one patch.
- Fortune shovel. Fortune raises the flint chance: about 14% at level I, 25% at level II, and 100% at level III.
An apprentice fletcher will also swap gravel and an emerald for flint, which beats digging if you trade a lot. For the ingot, see our guide to finding iron; one ingot is all you need.
What to light with it
Flint and steel has 64 uses before it breaks. Use it on:
- A Nether portal frame. Click the inside bottom of a finished obsidian frame. This is why most players craft one; see how to make a Nether portal.
- TNT. Lights the fuse. Step back; you have 4 seconds.
- Campfires and candles. Relights a campfire you put out with a shovel or water, and lights candles one click at a time.
- A creeper. Using flint and steel on a creeper starts its fuse, and it blows up a moment later whether you’re close or not. Back off fast.
- The top of most solid blocks, to start a fire. Netherrack burns forever, which is how fireplaces stay lit.
Flint and steel vs fire charge
A fire charge (blaze powder, gunpowder and coal or charcoal, giving 3) does the same lighting jobs but is used up after one go, and it can be fired from a dispenser. Flint and steel is cheaper per use and repairable, so carry one and keep fire charges for dispensers and redstone.
Lost the portal flame? It goes out when a mob or explosion breaks the frame. Repair the obsidian and relight. Other early tools are listed in the guides hub.
Common questions
Does the position of the iron and flint matter?
No. The recipe is shapeless, so the iron ingot and flint can go in any two slots, including the 2x2 inventory grid.
How many times can you use flint and steel?
64 uses. Unbreaking and Mending both work on it if you want it to last.
What can I use instead of flint and steel to light a portal?
A fire charge lights a Nether portal too, as does fire spreading from lava onto a wooden frame next to the obsidian.
Sources & verification
Facts on this page are checked against these references and in-game behavior for the stated edition(s). how we verify.
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