Chisel
This page was last verified for Vintage Story version 1.20.11.
| Chisel | |
| |
| Durability | Copper: 600 Tin Bronze: 1000 Bismuth Bronze: 1200 Black Bronze: 1400 Iron: 2000 Meteoric Iron: 2800 Steel: 6000 |
| Stackable | 1 |
| Tools | |
Chisels are used to polish stone and create chiseled microblocks. They are also used in certain crafting recipes and to break unwanted metal products down into metal bits.
Creation
- Smithing (1 ingot): All metals shown below
Table: Tool Tiers
Different chisel materials only affect durability. The only other benefit of higher chisel tiers is being able to break down anvils of that metal tier.
| Material | Durability | |
|---|---|---|
| Copper | 600 | |
| Tin bronze | 1000 | |
| Bismuth bronze | 1200 | |
| Black bronze | 1400 | |
| Iron | 2000 | |
| Meteoric iron | 2800 | |
| Steel | 6000 | |
Usage

The chisel has no properties as a weapon. It is equivalent to using the player's fist, with no additional damage or range, and consumes no durability on the chisel.
This tool is used in conjunction with the hammer and/or saw to craft stone and wood materials in the crafting grid. It is also used to recover metal from tool heads and ingots to be melted again.
Crafting
Most chisel crafting recipes consume some amount of durability on the chisel. If the chisel does not have enough durability for the recipe, the output will not appear.
The chisel can be used to craft the following items:
- The Quern.
- Polished rock, polished slabs and stone ashlar blocks. See Stone Blocks.
- Clay brick slabs from Large clay brick slabs.
- Gears, axles and rotors. See Mechanical power.
- The Anchor.
- The Fruitpress.
- The Soldering iron. This recipe consumes a full durability copper chisel.
- The Stone coffin and Stone coffin lid for Steelmaking.
- Diamond pattern tile.
Metal Recovery
The chisel can be placed above the following items in the crafting grid to break them down into metal bits. Each of these costs 1 durability on the chisel, except for lightning rods and plaques, which cost 20 durability.
| Item | Metal bits | |
|---|---|---|
| Ingot | 20 | |
| Plate | 40 | |
| Lamellae | 20 | |
| Chain | 40 | |
| Scales | 20 | |
| Work item | 20 | |
| Rod | 20 | |
| Plaque | 36 | |
| Lightning rod | 50 | |
Breaking down work items can be used to recover metal in case too many voxels are removed and the work item becomes impossible to complete, but it will always produce 20 bits even if there is more material present.
Block Chiseling
- Chiseling can affect whether or not a block insulates a room. See Room for the exact conditions.
Aside from crafting, the chisel allows the player to create detailed works by dividing blocks into 16x16x16 voxel subgrids. All chiseling requires the chisel to be in the main hand, with a hammer held in the off hand. To create a chiseled block, use the chisel on a block that has been placed in the world. The block will enter a "chiseled" state, which can be seen in the Block info HUD while holding a chisel. Chiseled blocks lose their ability to be used in crafting, and will always drop themselves when broken. A common use of this behavior is to collect building materials if stones are not wanted while relieving rock for use in crafting.
The "Microblock chiseling" world configuration setting must be enabled for chiseling. The "stonewood" option enables chiseling all stone and wood material blocks, while "all" enables chiseling for must cubic blocks. This setting can be updated after world creation with the command /worldconfig microblockChiseling [off|stonewood|all]. Functional blocks like firepits, clay ovens, tool racks, etc. cannot be chiseled.
In survival mode, chiseled blocks cannot be copied. In creative mode, chiseled blocks can be copied with middle click.

With the chisel and hammer ready, while looking at a chiseled block, press F to open the tool mode selection menu. In it, the following options are available:
- Grid size: Left click to remove voxels and right click to add voxels.
- Rotate: Left click to rotate the block clockwise and right click to rotate the block counter-clockwise.
- Flip: Left or right click to flip the block horizontally, relative to the direction you are facing.
- Set name: Left or right click to rename the block. The font size may also be changed. This block name will appear in the Block info HUD and in the inventory.
Multimaterial Chiseling
There is also an option labeled "Drop blocks here to add a material". To add a material, pick up the block in your inventory, then place it on the plus sign icon. You will then be able to select either material for placing voxels. This does not work with blocks that are already chiseled; see below.
Be careful when working with blocks that have rotational variants. A chiseled block can only be rotated horizontally, and not vertically. When adding a block that can be rotated as an additional material, only its default rotation can be added. If an alternate rotation of a block is desired, it must be chiseled in that state, then used as a base or additional material.
-
The chisel's tool menu with the same block in two different rotations.
The materials of two chiseled blocks can be combined by placing one above the other in the crafting grid. All materials of the lower block will be added to the upper block, and any chiseling of the lower block will be lost.
-
Combining the materials of 2 chiseled blocks with 2 materials each.
-
The result of the multimaterial combination with all 4 materials available.
Storage
Chisels do not stack in the player's inventory. Like other tools, they can be stored on tool racks and the ground. Chisels require a 1-block tall wall for ground storage. Chisels can also be placed on shelves.
Chiseled blocks stack if they are identical. This can be used to identify if any small errors in copying a design have occurred.
Liquid Flow
A block activated for chiseling will initially block water until the condition that 33 voxels at each layer between each faces chiseled, after which liquids will flow.

Water flows from left to right:
- Lava will flow through a sufficiently chiseled block
- Fast water will flow through a sufficiently chiseled block
- Still water will flow through a sufficiently chiseled block
- If only 32 or less voxels per layer are chiseled, liquids will not flow
- The top layer does not need to be among the chiseled voxels.
- Intersecting channels will allow flow in multiple directions.
- Chiseled voxels do not need to be contiguous. A block can appear to impede water flow, yet still allow it.
| 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 3 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 3 |
| 3 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 3 |
| 5 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 5 |
| 5 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 5 |
| 5 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 5 |
| 5 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 5 |
| 4 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 4 |
| 3 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 3 |
| 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
If a face has 33 voxels chiseled through all the way to the opposing face, water will flow between the faces. If another channel of 33 voxels between two other faces is made, the liquid will be able to flow those directions as well;
however, worth noting, these do NOT need to intersect. In fact, this doesn't even need to be a fully connected channel, as long as each layer between the two faces (those faces included) has 33 voxels chiseled out, the faces will count as connected. Any face
that is fully solid will be left out of faces that liquid can flow out of.
Other than the channel, all pathways can be enclosed. Doing this, it's possible to make single-liquid controlled piping systems or irrigation systems and aqueducts that can be walked across.
| 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 3 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 4 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 3 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 4 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 3 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 4 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 3 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 4 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 3 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 4 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 3 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 4 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 5 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 4 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 5 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 4 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 5 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 4 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 5 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 4 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 4 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 4 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 3 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 4 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 3 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 4 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 3 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 4 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 3 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 4 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 3 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 4 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
Tilled ground cannot be chiseled, and so cannot have piping built in, thus still limiting configurations for irrigation to existing configurations that could be done using just standard empty blocks then filled with water blocks or .
Thus, the primary advantages of using chiseled irrigation systems are:
- Visual appeal (stylized or hidden irrigation)
- Ability to walk across the irrigation system
- Discouraging spawning in the irrigation system
- Precise control of liquid flow
- Insulation control
Video Tutorials
| Visual demonstration of chiseling |
|---|
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