Copper is a new block that was added in the Minecraft 1.17 update. With many usages and variants, copper become popular for its building and decoration purposes, as well as part of other special crafting recipes. Let’s dive deep into the copper block in Minecraft!
What Is Copper Used for in Minecraft
Copper has a lot of different recipes and most of them are used for building blocks. With some exceptions, they can provide unique items with special functionality such as a lightning rod or a spyglass.

When you’re done mining and cooking the copper ore or deepslate copper ore in the furnace, you will get 1x Copper Ingot. This is where the beginning of copper usage in Minecraft starts!

In specific, you can use copper (or copper ingot) to craft any of its variants like a block of copper, cut copper, cut copper slab, and cut copper stairs.
Each of those original blocks also has another 7 variants and that results in 32 different recipes you can use Copper for.
Copper is Used For Decoration Purposes

Each variant of copper will have 4 states, which are normal, exposed, weathered, and oxidized state.
You can also combine them with a honeycomb to craft a waxed version, which will retain the current state of the block.
Usage 1: Craft Block of Copper

You can use copper to craft those building blocks:
- Block of Copper
- Waxed Block of Copper
- Exposed Copper
- Waxed Exposed Copper
- Weathered Copper
- Waxed Weathered Copper
- Oxidized Copper
- Waxed Oxidized Copper
Usage 2: Craft Cut Copper

Cut Copper can be crafted from a Block of Copper, which is basically from copper.
- Cut Copper
- Waxed Cut Copper
- Exposed Cut Copper
- Waxed Exposed Cut Copper
- Weathered Cut Copper
- Waxed Weathered Cut Copper
- Oxidized Cut Copper
- Waxed Oxidized Cut Copper
Usage 3: Craft Cut Copper Slab

Like the Cut Copper block, but with half a height.
- Cut Copper Slab
- Waxed Cut Copper Slab
- Exposed Cut Copper Slab
- Waxed Exposed Cut Copper Slab
- Weathered Cut Copper Slab
- Waxed Weathered Cut Copper Slab
- Oxidized Cut Copper Slab
- Waxed Oxidized Cut Copper Slab
Usage 4: Craft Cut Copper Stairs

The final variant of copper block.
- Cut Copper Stairs
- Waxed Cut Copper Stairs
- Exposed Cut Copper Stairs
- Waxed Exposed Cut Copper Stairs
- Weathered Cut Copper Stairs
- Waxed Weathered Cut Copper Stairs
- Oxidized Cut Copper Stairs
- Waxed Oxidized Cut Copper Stairs
Copper is Used For Crafting Special Items
Recipe 1: Craft a Lightning Rod
Copper can be used to craft a lightning rod, which is a special block that will force the lightning strike to hit it instead of a random block.
This block is quite useful to prevent wildfire or protect your animal farms.

To craft a lightning rod, you just need to put 3x Copper Ingot in a one-column shape on the crafting table.
Recipe 2: Craft a Spyglass
You can use copper to craft another useful item, which is a Spyglass. This allows you to zoom in to see the block far away more clearly.
Just imagine the zoom function in Optifine but without actually installing Optifine.

To craft a Spyglass, you need 2x Copper Ingot and 1x Amethyst Shard. The recipe is quite simple, just put the Amethyst shard on top and two copper ingots right below.
People Also Ask…
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There you have, a comprehensive answer to the question “what is copper used for in Minecraft” as well as descriptions on how to use it. Happy mining!
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