Humans require fire, and the virtual world is no different. Without flames, we can’t boil water, cook food, or receive warmth. When investigating caves, we need flames to light our way. This guide shows you how to make a torch in Minecraft so you can light up any dwelling, dungeon, temple, or whatever else that requires illumination.
Here we show you how to make two different torch types: Normal and redstone. There’s no real visible difference between the two save for the light they shed. However, there’s a big mechanical difference: One can power redstone and all related items while the other cannot.
You’ll need to gather a few items first and place your Crafting Table and Furnace (optional) in the Overworld to make these items.
What you need
Wood — Go find yourself a batch of trees and chop them down. Your lumberjack skills will result in little blocks of wood logs (Survival Mode) scattered across the terrain that you need to gather. You can use any tool to chop down trees — even your fist — except for a sword. You can also use any type of wood to craft a torch.
Coal — Coal ore blocks are typically found within four to fifteen blocks under the surface. You’ll need a pickaxe to mine one piece of coal from a coal ore block.
Redstone — Redstone ore blocks are typically found within 10 to 25 blocks under the surface. To gather redstone dust (also known as redstone) from this ore, you’ll need a diamond or iron pickaxe.
Make wood plank blocks
First, we need to convert logs into planks so we can make sticks.
Step 1: Open your inventory (shown above) or Crafting Table.
Step 2: Place one wood log block into any crafting grid square. You can use stripped wood as well.
Step 3: Drag the resulting four wood plank blocks down into your inventory.
Step 4: Repeat these steps to get all the wood plank blocks you need.
Make sticks
Here we create the torch body using sticks generated from the planks.
Step 1: Open your inventory (shown above) or Crafting Table.
Step 2: Place one wood plank block into any square in the top row.
Step 3: Place one wood plank block directly below in the second row.
Step 4: Drag the resulting four sticks down into your inventory.
Step 5: Repeat these steps as necessary to create additional sticks.
Optional: Make charcoal
You really don’t need charcoal to make a torch — this is just an alternative method and good practice if you ever need charcoal later.
Step 1: Open your Furnace.
Step 2: Place coal into the bottom square.
Step 3: Place one wood log block into the top square.
Step 4: Drag the resulting charcoal down into your inventory.
Note: You can place multiple wood log blocks and coal chunks into the furnace to make more than one charcoal in a single sitting. The Furnace will continue to make charcoal until resources are depleted.
Make standard torches
With sticks and coal (or charcoal) in hand, we can now make our torch! This version illuminates a soft white against the surrounding blocks.
Step 1: Open your Crafting Table.
Step 2: Place one coal or charcoal into the middle square in the top row.
Step 3: Place one stick directly below into the middle square in the second row.
Step 4: Drag the resulting four torches down into your inventory.
Step 5: Repeat these steps until you get all the torches you need.
Make a redstone torch
If you want red lighting, the redstone torch delivers. It spills a slightly darker and narrower red hue against the surrounding blocks. For a comparison between the two torch types, check the image below.
However, as you may have guessed, the redstone torch is more than just a pretty light: It’s what powers redstone and all related items, like redstone lamps, pistons, doors, and more.
Unlike crafting a normal Torch, you’ll only produce one redstone torch at a time.
Step 1: Open your Crafting Table.
Step 2: Place one redstone (dust) into the middle square in the top row.
Step 3: Place one stick directly below into the middle square in the second row.
Step 4: Drag the resulting one redstone torch down into your inventory.
Step 5: Repeat these steps until you get all the redstone torches you need.
Torch (left) vs. redstone torch (right)