How to Make Cauldron in Minecraft

Cauldron

Cauldron holds water, lava, or powder snow — used for washing dye off armour, cleaning banner patterns, and as vanilla's only renewable lava holder.

Block ID minecraft:cauldron

Mod Vanilla

Game versions

1.21

Description

Cauldron is crafted from seven iron ingots arranged in a U-shape on the crafting grid, yielding one cauldron per recipe — a heavy iron investment justified by the unique fluid-storage role. Water sits in three discrete levels in Java Edition (six in Bedrock Edition), while lava occupies a single full mark. A water bottle, lava bucket, or powder snow bucket tops it up; glass bottles add or remove water one level at a time, and an empty bucket scoops only a completely full cauldron dry in one go.

Unique uses include: washing dye off leather armour in undyed water (Bedrock Edition also lets dye be mixed into the water to colour armour; in Java Edition leather dyeing happens on the crafting grid), removing the topmost pattern layer of banners, extinguishing fire on burning entities (jumping into a water-filled cauldron), and the only renewable lava source in vanilla — a pointed dripstone under a block with a lava source above it slowly drips lava into a cauldron below. Generated cauldrons appear in swamp huts, igloo basements (two-thirds filled with water), village tannery houses, and woodland mansion jail cells.

Block properties

Item ID	`minecraft:cauldron`
/give command	`/give @p minecraft:cauldron`
Stackable	Yes (64)
Best tool	Pickaxe
Renewable	Yes
Hardness	2
Blast resistance	2

Java & Bedrock Guide

How to craft and use a Cauldron in Minecraft

1

Craft the cauldron

Place seven iron ingots in a U-shape on the 3x3 crafting grid (both sides full, bottom row full, centre and top empty) to make one cauldron.
2

Fill the cauldron

Right-click with a water bottle or water bucket to add water, a lava bucket for lava, or a powder snow bucket for powder snow. Water has three fill levels.
3

Dye or wash leather and banners

Right-click dyed leather armour on a cauldron of plain water to wash the colour off; in Bedrock Edition, add a dye to the water first and right-click the armour to colour it there. Right-clicking a patterned banner removes its top layer.
4

Build a renewable lava source

Place pointed dripstone under a dripstone block with a lava source above it, and a cauldron beneath the tip. Lava slowly drips in until the cauldron is full.

Version note

Cauldrons fill from rain (both editions) and from dripstone; a lava-filled cauldron emits light level 15. In Bedrock Edition a cauldron can also hold potions and tip arrows.