Sandstone

Transparent	No
Luminance	0
Blast resistance	4
Tool
Renewable	Sandstone : Yes‌^{[JE only]} Red Sandstone : Yes‌^{[BE & JE only]}
Stackable	Yes (64)
Flammable	No
Drops	Itself
Data values	Sandstone dec: 24 hex: 18 bin: 11000 Red Sandstone dec: 179 hex: B3 bin: 10110011
Namespaced ID	See Data values

	“	Sandstone is pretty easy to find in Minecraft. Find a desert and start digging. The upper layers of the ground will be regular sand, but below that the weight has compressed the sand into tougher sandstone blocks that hold their shape and won't fall. If all that digging sounds like hard work, then track down a desert village, well or temple instead - all of which are made of different kinds of sandstone. Or - for the very laziest amongst you - just combine four sand in a crafting grid.	„
		— Duncan Geere^[1]

Sandstone and red sandstone are solid blocks, commonly found in deserts and beaches.

Obtaining[edit]

Sandstone can be mined with any pickaxe. If broken with any other item, the block drops nothing.

Block	Sandstone Red Sandstone
Hardness	0.8
Tool
Breaking time^{[note 1]}
Hand	4
Wooden	0.65
Stone	0.35
Iron	0.2
Diamond	0.2
Golden	0.1

↑ Times are for unenchanted tools in seconds. For more information, see Haste § Instant mining.

Natural generation[edit]

Regular sandstone generates in deserts and beaches, compressed underneath several meters of sand. This naturally protects sand from falling into caves and ravines. Orange terracotta replaces what would be the sandstone layer for red sand, so red sandstone cannot be found naturally. It must be crafted from the red sand in badlands biomes.

Naturally-generated structures that generate in a desert are made of sandstone. Desert wells are made of normal sandstone, desert villages made of normal, cut , and smooth sandstone, and desert pyramids are made of normal, cut, and chiseled sandstone. Additionally, warm underwater ruins are made greatly of sandstone variants. All the aforementioned structures use sandstone blocks, slabs, stairs, and walls. No naturally generated structures are made of red sandstone.

Crafting[edit]

Name	Ingredients	Crafting recipe
Sandstone or Red Sandstone	Sand or Red Sand
Cut Sandstone or Cut Red Sandstone	Sandstone or Red Sandstone	44
Chiseled Sandstone or Chiseled Red Sandstone	Sandstone Slab or Red Sandstone Slab

Stonecutting[edit]

Name	Ingredients	Cutting recipe
Cut Sandstone or Cut Red Sandstone	Sandstone or Red Sandstone
Chiseled Sandstone or Chiseled Red Sandstone	Sandstone or Red Sandstone

Smelting[edit]

Name	Ingredients	Smelting recipe
Smooth Sandstone	Sandstone + Any fuel
Smooth Red Sandstone	Red Sandstone + Any fuel

Trading[edit]

Wandering traders sell 4 red sandstone for one emerald.‌^{[Bedrock Edition only]}

Usage[edit]

Unlike sand, sandstone is never affected by gravity.

Crafting ingredient[edit]

Name	Ingredients	Crafting recipe
Cut Sandstone Slab or Cut Red Sandstone Slab	Cut Sandstone or Cut Red Sandstone	66
Red Sandstone Slab	Red Sandstone	6
Red Sandstone Stairs	Red Sandstone	4
Sandstone Slab	Sandstone	6
Sandstone Stairs	Sandstone	4
Sandstone Wall or Red Sandstone Wall	Sandstone or Red Sandstone	66
Smooth Red Sandstone Stairs	Smooth Red Sandstone	4
Smooth Sandstone Slab or Smooth Red Sandstone Slab	Smooth Sandstone or Smooth Red Sandstone	66
Smooth Sandstone Stairs	Smooth Sandstone	4

Stonecutting[edit]

Name	Ingredients	Cutting recipe
Sandstone Slab or Sandstone Stairs or Sandstone Wall or Cut Sandstone or Cut Sandstone Slab or Chiseled Sandstone	Sandstone	22
Cut Sandstone Slab	Cut Sandstone	2
Smooth Sandstone Slab or Smooth Sandstone Stairs	Smooth Sandstone	2
Red Sandstone Slab or Red Sandstone Stairs or Red Sandstone Wall or Cut Red Sandstone or Cut Red Sandstone Slab or Chiseled Red Sandstone	Red Sandstone	22
Cut Red Sandstone Slab	Cut Red Sandstone	2
Smooth Red Sandstone Slab or Smooth Red Sandstone Stairs	Smooth Red Sandstone	2

Data values[edit]

ID[edit]

Java Edition:

Block	Namespaced ID
Sandstone	`sandstone`
Cut Sandstone	`cut_sandstone`
Chiseled Sandstone	`chiseled_sandstone`
Smooth Sandstone	`smooth_sandstone`
Red Sandstone	`red_sandstone`
Cut Red Sandstone	`cut_red_sandstone`
Chiseled Red Sandstone	`chiseled_red_sandstone`
Smooth Red Sandstone	`smooth_red_sandstone`

Bedrock Edition:

Block	Namespaced ID	Numeric ID
Sandstone	`sandstone`	24
Red Sandstone	`red_sandstone`	179

Block data[edit]

Block states[edit]

History[edit]

Java Edition Beta
1.2				Added sandstone.
1.3				Sandstone is now found below three blocks of naturally generated sand.
1.3				Added the ability to craft sandstone slabs from sandstone.
1.8		?		Sandstone will now no longer occur naturally in chunks generated.
1.8.1				The issue from Beta 1.8 has now been resolved, allowing sandstone to now naturally occur in generated chunks.
Java Edition
1.2.1		release		Two textures have now been added to the terrain.png file and might be used as decorative sandstone variants. However, these textures do not appear in the game, at the moment.
1.2.4				The textures added in 1.2.1 is changed, and added sandstone with these textures,^[2] using the same in-game name as regular sandstone.
1.2.4				The normal sandstone's texture has now been changed.
1.3.1		12w19a		Distinct names (chiseled sandstone and smooth sandstone) have now been given to the variants of sandstone. Before this update, chiseled sandstone was often referred to as hieroglyphic sandstone or decorative sandstone.
		12w21a		Added desert temples, which use all three variants of sandstone as building materials.
		12w21a		Added sandstone stairs.
		12w21b		Added crafting recipe for sandstone stairs.
		12w22a		Inventory sprites for blocks have now been flipped from left to right, changing to .
1.8		14w20a		Sandstone will now generate at the entrances of caves.
		14w29a		Smooth sandstone can now no longer be crafted into itself.^[3]
		August 5, 2014		Dinnerbone tweets a screenshot containing red sandstone.
		14w32a		Added red sandstone.
		14w32a		Red sandstone will now generate in mesa caves, instead of sandstone.
1.10		16w20a		Sandstone will now no longer generate at the entrances of caves; the sand is now left unsupported in these locations.
1.10		16w20a		Red sandstone will now no longer generate naturally, as it only ever generated at the entrances of caves.
1.13		17w47a		The different `type` block states for both the `sandstone` and `red_sandstone` IDs have been split up into their own IDs.
				Smooth (red) sandstone has now been renamed to cut (red) sandstone.
				Added item form for the smooth double slab sandstone.
				Prior to The Flattening, these blocks' numeral IDs were 24, 43, 179 and 180.^[verify]
		18w09a		Sandstone will now generate in underwater ruins.
1.14		18w43a		Smooth and smooth red sandstone can now be obtained by smelting sandstone and red sandstone, respectively.
				All sandstone textures have now been changed.
				All red sandstone textures have now been changed.
		18w44a		All sandstone's textures have been changed, once again.
		18w47a		Changed the top textures of all sandstone blocks.
		18w47a		All red sandstone textures have been changed, once again.
		18w50a		Changed the top textures of all sandstone blocks, once again.
		18w50a		Changed the top textures of all red sandstone blocks.
Pocket Edition Alpha
Pre-release				Added regular sandstone.
0.6.0				Added chiseled and smooth sandstone.
0.6.0				Sandstone is now crafted in the stonecutter.
0.7.3				Sandstone stairs were made craftable.
0.9.0		?		Sandstone and cut sandstone will now generate in desert villages.
?				Sandstone will now generate in desert wells.
0.13.0		build 1		Sandstone is now no longer crafted in the stonecutter.
0.13.0		build 1		Sandstone, cut sandstone and chiseled sandstone will now generate in desert temples.
0.14.0		build 1		Added red sandstone.
Bedrock Edition
1.4.0		beta 1.2.20.1		Sandstone, cut sandstone and chiseled sandstone will now generate in warm underwater ruins.
1.9.0		beta 1.9.0.0		"Smooth Sandstone" and "Smooth Red Sandstone" have now been renamed to "Cut Sandstone" and "Cut Red Sandstone".
				Sandstone and red sandstone can now be used to craft sandstone and red sandstone walls.
				Cut sandstone and cut red sandstone can now be used to craft cut sandstone and cut red sandstone slabs.
				Smooth sandstone has now been made obtainable by smelting regular sandstone, which can be used to craft smooth sandstone slabs and stairs.
1.10.0		beta 1.10.0.3		Smooth sandstone now does the generate in new desert villages.
1.11.0		beta 1.11.0.4		The Red Sandstone which is sold by wandering trader.
Legacy Console Edition
TU1	CU1	1.0	Patch 1	^[verify] Added sandstone.
TU1		1.0		Added the variants of sandstone. They will drop the original sandstone upon breaking.
TU14		1.04		Added crafting recipes for smooth and chiseled sandstone.
TU14		1.04		Smooth and chiseled sandstone will now drop themselves.
TU31	CU19	1.22	Patch 3	Added red sandstone and its variants.
New Nintendo 3DS Edition
0.1.0				Added Sandstone.

Issues[edit]

Issues relating to "Sandstone" are maintained on the bug tracker. Report issues there.

Trivia[edit]

Chiseled sandstone has the image of a creeper on it, while chiseled red sandstone has the image of a wither on it.
- The idea of the wither appearing on chiseled red sandstone was suggested by Reddit user ULiopleurodon.^[4]
Cut sandstone and cut red sandstone are two of the three blocks with a slab equivalent, but not a stair equivalent.

Gallery[edit]

Natural sandstone.
Natural sandstone found at the bottom of a stack of sand.
Natural sandstone blocking sand from entering a cave system.
Natural sandstone well.
A player-made pyramid made out of sandstone, cut sandstone and chiseled sandstone.
The different kinds of sand-based blocks.
The first image of red sandstone, as tweeted by Nathan Adams.
Red sandstone generating at the entrance of a badlands cave.
Sandstone generating as part of an underwater ruin.