You won’t get far in Minecraft PE without crafting. This block transforms wood into tools, cobblestone into furnaces, and small pieces of melon into delicious whole melons. Mmmm, I love melons. In fact, I’ve had a bit too much melon.
This week’s block is the one that makes almost all other blocks in MCPE possible – stand up and grab your crafting table!
Crafting, despite being literally half of the game’s name, was not part of the early versions of Minecraft. In fact, it took 258 days after the release of the first numbered version for crafting to be introduced in version 0.31 on January 29, 2010. That’s when crafting and the workbench, initially called workbench, were added.
Some of the earliest items that could be crafted included iron blocks, gold blocks, pickaxes, swords, chests, signs, torches, and slabs. As more blocks were added to Minecraft Pocket Edition, new recipes were also implemented, including shapeless recipes in beta version 1.2. However, it wasn’t until the latest version Minecraft, 1.12, that a way to view recipes in-game was included. We still don’t know how you guys remembered all those recipes before this feature came along. Great job!
One recipe that nearly everyone remembers from their first time playing Minecraft is how to create a crafting table. Of course, it’s four planks arranged in a square. You can occasionally find crafting tables naturally occurring in MCPE – in village libraries, huts, and igloos. Who knows what those witches are doing?
Of course, crafting isn’t the only use for crafting tables. They can also serve as furnace fuel – smelting 1.5 units per block. Alternatively, you might consider using crafting tables as a relatively inexpensive building material, constructing an entire house out of them so you can always locate it when urgently needed. I think they would make a fantastic floor.
The term “craft” originates from the Old English word “cræft,” which meant strength or skill, linked to the Proto-Indo-European word “kraftaz” (meaning “power”), dating back to the invention of the wheel and the domestication of horses. In Sweden, where the beloved game Minecraft was created, “craft” still signifies “power.” Minepower!
The first crafting tables were likely invented long after the wheel. Historical evidence shows that ancient Egyptians carved notches in rocks to replicate objects, while Romans have some of the earliest examples of what we now recognize as a crafting table.
Clearly, crafting tables have existed in various forms for thousands of years. We would argue that they will continue to be used for millennia to come. If that doesn’t qualify them as the block of the week, then I don’t know what does.
