For new Minecraft players, learning to craft smooth stone blocks opens up a world of possibilities when it comes to building. From structural foundations to decorative finishes, smooth stone brings aesthetic appeal and functionality to all types of construction projects.
In this comprehensive guide, we will cover everything you need to know about obtaining smooth stone sustainably, using it effectively across different build types, and even automating production for large-scale smooth stone generation.
An Introduction to Smooth Stone
Smooth stone is created by smelting regular stone blocks. This smelting process removes the signature rough texture and uneven appearance of regular stone and cobblestone, leaving behind a refined, straight-edged building material.
Unlike its rougher counterparts found naturally in the game world, smooth stone must be crafted deliberately using a furnace. This building block was first introduced into Minecraft in version 1.3 through The Pretty Scary Update, marking an important milestone for players looking to enhance their structures.
Over time, crafters have discovered a diverse range of applications for smooth stone blocks:
- Clean, modern architectural finishes
- Crafting stone slabs, stairs, and other items
- Constructing high-powered blast furnaces
- Defensive building against creepers and other explosive forces
As you progress in Minecraft from early game to end game achievements, learning to acquire and craft with smooth stone efficiently will fast become a necessary skill.
Gathering the Ingredients and Resources
Before we dive into processing, you first need to ensure you have assembled all of the required ingredients and tools for creating smooth stone:
- Cobblestone – Obtained by mining stone blocks with a non-silk-touch pickaxe
- Regular Stone – Mined using a pickaxe enchanted with Silk Touch
- Furnace – Created by arranging 8 cobblestone blocks
- Fuel – Such as coal, wooden planks, sticks, etc. to power the furnace
Of these options, cobblestone will be the most abundant resource for new players early on. Approximately 98% of stone mined with a standard iron or diamond pickaxe will be converted into cobblestone blocks. As you progress later on, silk touch enchanted pickaxes can improve efficiency by yielding regular stone instead.
Constructing a furnace requires 8 blocks of cobblestone arranged in a ring shape on your crafting table. This will be the powerhouse tool used for smelting both cobblestone and regular stone into smooth stone. More furnaces can be built to scale production.
Lastly, various combustible materials found through mining or harvesting trees can fuel the furnace including:
- Coal/Charcoal
- Wooden Planks
- Sticks
Coal and charcoal offer the longest and most efficient burn times. But in a pinch, any wood materials can power your furnace.
Step-by-Step Smooth Stone Crafting Process
With the ingredients assembled, we‘re now ready to progress through the furnace-based crafting process step-by-step:
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Mine cobblestone – Equip an iron or diamond pickaxe to mine stone, yielding mostly cobblestone blocks. Store these for crafting. Optionally, use Silk Touch here instead for later efficiency.
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Smelt cobblestone into regular stone – Arrange cobblestone in the top input box of your furnace. Place fuel in the bottom box. After about 10 seconds, the cobblestone outputs as regular stone blocks.
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Smelt regular stone into smooth stone – Take your new regular stone blocks, and place them back into the top furnace box as input. Supply more fuel like coal or charcoal. In another ~10 seconds, your regular stone will be transformed into polished smooth stone!
By chaining together this two-stage smelting process, rough cobblestone is smoothed down into the refined building material so essential for aesthetic Minecraft builds. Going from cobblestone to regular stone saves one full smelting cycle.
Here is a quick reference on standard furnace smelting times once fueled:
| Input Material | Fuel Source | Total Smelt Time |
|---|---|---|
| Cobblestone | Coal | 20 sec |
| Cobblestone | Wood Planks | 30 sec |
| Regular Stone | Coal | 10 sec |
| Regular Stone | Wood Planks | 15 sec |
As shown, silk touch and coal furnace fueling will deliver the fastest smoothest stone results.
Constructing With Smooth Stone
Once you‘ve built up a supply of smooth stone in your inventory through smelting, you‘ll start putting it to use across bases, mega-builds, and villages in a multitude of ways:
Architectural Finishing
The sleek appearance of smooth stone blocks make them ideal finish materials for aesthetically pleasing structures:
- Stone brick facades for modern castle builds
- Polished row home exteriors in village blueprints
- Ornate fireplace mantles as focal points
- Fancy walkways and road materials
Mixing smooth stone bricks and slabs together with other blocks results in eye-catching patterns for constructing unique buildings within your world.
Crafting Slabs, Stairs, Furnaces
Several other useful items can also be produced using smooth stone blocks:
- Slabs – Created by placing 3 smooth stones horizontally on a crafting table for a 1/2 size block
- Stairs – Each smooth stone block yields 4 smooth stone stairs
- Blast Furnace – Construct with 3 smooth stone, 5 iron ingots, and 1 standard furnace
Slabs and stairs open up options for depth, dimension, and detailing on buildings. Blast furnaces increase your smelting speeds over a standard furnace for iron and steel production.
Defensive Forti?cations
For players who have reached the nether dimension and defeated the Ender Dragon boss, raids by Illager patrols, witch covens, vindicator clans, and other hostile mobs pose an ever-present threat to village safety.
As one of the most durable and explosion-resistant materials in the game, smooth stone offers a robust base for fortifying vulnerable buildings and entrances:
- Reinforce perimeter walls, ceilings, and floors with multiple smooth stone layers
- Construct hidden panic rooms deep underground out of blast-proof smooth stone
- Use smooth stone to securely insulate reactor chambers, armories, potion labs and other high-risk areas from accidental TNT or creeper detonations
Thoroughly encasing your most critical indoor rooms with smooth stone blocks adds crucial protection when the raids inevitably come. Prioritize coverage across exterior sidewalls, load-bearing pillars, weight-supporting ceiling arches, and subterranean corner foundations.
Setting Up Smooth Stone Factory Builds
For players with big dreams and lots of mining to do across infinite worlds, setting up industrial-sized smooth stone generator farms can be a game-changer. By employing some redstone wizardry and automation, it‘s possible to churn out smooth stone building materials at scale.
Let‘s explore essential considerations for engineering your own smooth stone factory:
Optimal Mining Approaches
- Branch mine inefficiently to maximize cobblestone yields
- Equip high-grade diamond pickaxe with Unbreaking III, Efficiency IV, and Fortune III enchants
- Construct secondary tunnels and shafts around layer 12 for dense stone deposits
Efficient Fueling
- Build tree farm or fully sustainable charcoal farm to generate bounties of furnace fuel
- Link tree farm to auto-feed furnace fuel for 24/7 smooth stone smelting
Redstone Automation
- Use hopper chains to automatically pull/push cobblestone blocks into furnaces
- Funnel finished smooth stone blocks into chest buffer storage
- Employ redstone circuitry to control furnace on/off states
Properly planned factories centered around these best practices can generate double chests filled with stackable smooth stone in relatively short mining sessions. Consider spacing out multiple furnace stations in assembly line formation for scalability.
With an efficient smooth stone generator farm customized to fit your long-term building vision, you‘ll enjoy a smooth-flowing supply of this invaluable construction commodity as your world expands.
Final Thoughts
Smooth stone has cemented itself as a versatile staple material for builders and technical players alike. Though easy to overlook as another plain cube block, intentionally crafting it by smelting opens new doors for constructing beautiful, durable structures.
Hopefully this all-encompassing guide has unlocked the secrets to successfully generating smooth stone yourself across every stage – from cobblestone collection to furnace fueling automation. Mastering smooth stone gives you creative liberty and fortification strength to build as ambitiously as you can imagine across every biome.
So fire up those furnaces, fuel your mining expeditions, and transform that rough cobblestone into polished smooth stone riches beyond your wildest dreams! The only limit is how much inventory space you have to hold these high-demand blocks as you shape impressive bases, monuments, castles, and complexes across every landscape.
Happy building!
