What is Silk Touch?

Silk Touch is a tool enchantment in Minecraft that players can apply to a pickaxe, shovel, hoe, axe, and shears (bedrock only). The enchantment allows the player to break blocks and have them appear as themselves rather than the usual drops when they’re broken with a normal tool. For example, breaking a diamond ore with a normal pickaxe will give you diamonds, but if you break it with Silk Touch, it will drop the ore block itself. The maximum level of the enchantment is 1, meaning you don’t have to worry about any levels outside the initial.

Additional uses for Silk Touch

Silk Touch is a rather versatile enchantment that has quite a few uses. The enchantment makes certain unattainable items attainable, such as blue ice, bee nests, and beehives. Bee nests can be especially good for players looking to make a honey farm, as this is the only way to move the nest while keeping the occupying bees.

More notable items that players can obtain include, but are not limited to:

(If an item has a pickaxe or shovel only, it can only be broken if the player has the specific tool with the enchantment, typically requiring it to be better than stone tools in some cases when it comes to pickaxes.)

• Amethyst bud and amethyst clusters. (only breakable with a pickaxe for both)
• Mushroom blocks
• Clay
• Leaves (of all types)
• Ender chest (pickaxe only)
• Coal ore, iron ore, diamond ore, redstone ore, emerald ore, copper ore, and lapis lazuli ore (all only breakable with a pickaxe)
• Nether gold ore and Nether quartz ore (pickaxe only)
• Dirt Path (bedrock edition only)
• Campfire
• Glass panes and glass blocks
• Glowstone
• Turtle Egg’s
• Sea Lantern
• Podzol and Nylium
• Coral blocks (pickaxe only)
• Deepslate (pickaxe only)
• Gilded blackstone (pickaxe only)
• Sculk sensor, sculk vein, sculk catalyst,
• Snow block (shovel only)
• Snow (shovel only, Java Edition only)
• Decorated pot
• Twisting vines and weeping vines

Limits for Silk Touch

It should be noted that not everything can be mined with Silk Touch. Things such as a budding amethyst cannot be mined, even if the player uses a Silk Touch pickaxe. A good example of the enchantment limits is when it comes to infested blocks. It can only mine the infested block, but it won’t keep the silverfish inside of it.

There’s also items that are completely unobtainable in survival, cannot be mined with a Silk Touch tool, and will break normally regardless of trying. Examples of this are monster spawners, frosted ice, inverted daylight detectors, melon stem, and pumpkin stems (and most crop bases in general), and suspicious gravel and sand.

Silk Touch also cannot be used with the fortune enchantment, as they naturally go against each other’s purposes. If you use commands to get both enchantments on the same pickaxe, the silk touch enchantment will take priority. Similarly, it’s also incompatible with luck of the sea and looting, but this is less likely to matter as you cannot naturally get those enchantments on tools that can get silk touch, such as fishing rods. While the player can get both enchantments through commands, the enchantment function will be normal, though it serves little purpose.

How do I obtain Silk Touch?

There are quite a few ways to obtain the Silk Touch enchantment. While there’s a variety of ways to obtain the enchant, it’s quite rare overall. So some methods become more reliable than others.

Enchantment Table

A possible way to obtain the enchantment is through an enchanting table (though the enchantment is quite rare from enchanting tables). Using 1-3 lapis lazuli (depending on the enchantment level), you can obtain it by random chance at any level of the enchantment. You can either enchant the tool directly or enchant a book to see if you happen to get the enchantment. Then you can follow the directions below to apply the book to your tools.

Fishing

One of the possible ways is through fishing using a fishing pole, where you have a random chance to fish for silk touch at a random lvl along with other enchantments. You can use the luck of the sea enchantment to increase this chance further. This is an important enchantment if you plan on using this method quite a bit.

Trading

Players can obtain the silk touch enchantment from villager trades with librarian villagers. Due to the fact that the enchantment only has one level, you should easily be able to find the enchantment using this method. By breaking and placing down the librarian’s lectern, you can reset their trades. This can be done an infinite number of times by trapping the villager in a small space and constantly breaking and replacing the lectern. However, once you purchase anything from that librarian, the trade will be locked, regardless of whether it is reset.

Exploration

You can also find the silk touch enchantment in different chest loot from different naturally spawned structures in Minecraft. While this isn’t a guaranteed way, it’s good to check these structures if you need the enchantment.

Applying the enchantment

Once you receive the enchanted book with silk touch, you can use an anvil to apply the enchantment to your axe, hoe, shears, or pickaxe. It can be applied to both unenchanted items and items with other enchantments on them.

Game Commands

You can apply the silk touch to your tools by using in game commands. By using the command “/enchant @p silk_touch 1,” you can apply the enchantment to your tool. It does not matter if you try and use a higher number, as silk touch does not change if you try and have a level higher than one.