Block of Coal

A block of coal, also known as a coal block, is a storage block, equivalent to nine coal, that can also be used as fuel.

Breaking

Blocks of coal can be mined using any pickaxe. If mined without a pickaxe, it drops nothing.

Natural generation

Blocks of coal can generate in trail ruins.

Crafting

Blocks of coal can be crafted only from regular coal, not charcoal. It is crafted in the same way as other mineral blocks.

Usage

Blocks of coal are often used to store coal in a compact fashion, or otherwise used as a fairly cheap construction block.

Fuel

Blocks of coal can be used as fuel in a furnace. One block of coal lasts 800 seconds (16000 ticks), which smelts 80 items. This is ten times the duration of a single piece of coal and 1 times as efficient (+11.11%) as nine individual pieces of coal, which would only smelt 72 items. The latter, however, prevents inactive furnace use; while smelting one item with one coal wastes seven potential items, smelting one item with one block of coal wastes 79 potential items.

Trivia

Blocks of coal cannot be used as fuel for the minecart with furnace. A full stack of coal blocks should smelt for 14.2 hours – over 42 Minecraft days. That is over 50 times as many items as a lava bucket. However, the player needs 576 coal or 9 stacks of coal to do this.