- Craft
Shears from 2 iron ingots placed diagonally. - They shear sheep, carve pumpkins, collect honeycomb and pick up leaves, cobwebs and grass as blocks.
- They have 238 durability and can get Efficiency, Unbreaking and Mending.
Shears are cheap and do jobs no other tool can. Keep a pair in your hotbar.
Mobs
| Use on | What happens |
|---|---|
| Sheep | Drops wool. It grows back, so you can shear the same sheep again |
| Mooshroom | Drops 5 mushrooms and turns it into a normal cow |
| Snow golem | Takes off its pumpkin head |
| Bogged | Drops 2 mushrooms |
| Saddled animal | Takes the saddle off (Java 1.21.6 and later) |
Blocks
Pumpkin: turns it into a carved pumpkin and drops pumpkin seeds.
Beehive or bee nest at full honey: drops 3 honeycomb.- Tripwire: cuts it without setting off the trap.
Angry beesPut a campfire under the hive first, or the bees will attack when you take the honeycomb.
Collecting blocks
Breaking these with shears gives you the block itself instead of nothing or a different drop:
| Block | Without shears |
|---|---|
| Leaves | Saplings, sticks or apples |
| String, with a sword | |
| Sometimes seeds | |
| Nothing |
Shears also break wool and leaves much faster than your hand.
Enchantments
Efficiency, Unbreaking and Mending all work on shears. On Bedrock they can also get Silk Touch.
Cheat sheet
- 2 iron ingots, diagonal
- Sheep, mooshrooms, pumpkins, hives
- Collect leaves, cobwebs and vines
- Cut tripwires safely

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