How to Make a Shield in Minecraft

This article explains how to craft a shield in Minecraft (any version) as well as how to gather the supplies, decorate your shield, and create a banner.

What You Need to Make a Shield

In Minecraft, a shield is a defensive item that you can craft and equip to help protect you from attacks. The materials are extremely basic, which makes it pretty easy to craft yourself up some protection when you first start playing. These shields are basic rectangles in design, but you can customize them with unique patterns and even enchant them in some versions of Minecraft.

You will need:

• A crafting table.
• Six wood planks.
• One iron ingot.

The recipe and process are the same regardless of the version of Minecraft that you're using, and it's available in the vanilla version of the game, so you don't need any mods to execute this craft.

How to Craft the Shield

Here's the recipe to craft your own shield:

1. Obtain six wood planks.

   

2. Obtain one iron ingot.

   

3. Open your crafting table.

   

4. Arrange your planks and iron ingot in the crafting table. Put the iron ingot in the middle of the top row. Put planks on the left and right in the top row, all three spaces in the middle row, and the middle of the bottom row.

   

5. Drag the shield from the upper right box to your inventory.

   

6. Your shield is now ready to use.

How to Obtain the Components to Make a Shield

To make your shield, you need wood planks and iron ore. The wood planks can be made from any type of wood, which you obtain by punching or chopping trees, while iron ore can be found anywhere from the bedrock to a little bit above sea level.

How to get wood planks:

1. Punch or chop trees until you have some wood logs.

   

   You only need two logs to make enough planks to make a shield.

2. Open your crafting menu or crafting table, and place your logs in the center.

   

3. Move planks from the upper right box into your inventory.

   

   Planks are created in stacks of four, so you will quickly generate a lot of planks.

How to Locate Iron Ore and Make Iron Bars

Iron ore is the most common type of ore in Minecraft, so you'll find it all over the place. Look underground from just above sea level all the way down to bedrock. If you can find a natural cave system or a deep ravine, you'll often see exposed veins of iron ore ready to mine. You can also find iron bars in chests if you happen across a village, stronghold, mine shaft, tower, or sunken ship.

Here's how to get iron ore and make an iron bar for your shield:

1. Locate and mine some iron ore.

   

2. Open your furnace.

   

3. Place iron ore and a fuel source like coal, charcoal, or wood into your furnace.

   

4. Wait for the iron ingot to smelt.

   

5. Drag the iron ingot into your inventory.

   

How to Decorate a Shield in Minecraft

Once you've built your shield, you can immediately equip and start using it like any other equipment. You can also decorate your shield to customize it visually. This is also referred to as making a custom shield, and it requires a shield and a banner.

Here's how to create a custom shield:

1. Open your crafting menu.

   

2. Place a banner and a shield on the crafting table in this pattern.

   

3. Drag the custom shield from the upper right box into your inventory.

   

How to Make a Banner in Minecraft

If you don't already have a custom banner, then you'll need to make one before you can customize your shield. This is a pretty easy process that requires a stick and six wool to make the banner, and then a loom, a banner, and some dye to customize the banner.

Here's how to make your custom banner in Minecraft:

1. Open your crafting table menu.

   

2. Place six wool and one stick in this pattern.

   All the wool used must be the same color.

   

3. Move the banner from the upper right box into your inventory.

   

4. Open your loom.

   

5. In the loom interface, place your banner, your dye, and then select a pattern from the list.

   The third box (under the banner and the dye on the left side of the loom interface) is for an optional 'banner pattern' item. These can be crafted with paper and an item. For example, a Wither Skeleton Skull + Paper will craft into a Skull pattern. If this is used, it will add a skull and crossbones to the banner.

   

6. Verify that you want that pattern, and move the custom banner into your inventory.

   

   If you want, you can dye the custom banner again using this same method to create more complex patterns.