Shears

Shearing and block uses

Shearing a sheep removes its coat and yields 1–3 wool; it can be sheared again after eating from grass or short grass. A full beehive or bee nest yields three honeycombs and resets to honey level zero. Hand-shearing without a campfire or soul campfire below it releases the bees and causes nearby bees to attack. Shears can also carve pumpkins, trim the tips of cave vines, kelp, weeping vines, and twisting vines, and harvest listed targets including leaves, cobwebs, seagrass, ferns, glow lichen, and hanging roots. The listed cobweb breaking time with shears is 0.4 seconds.

Mob interactions and dispensers

Shears can collect mushrooms from a bogged, turn a mooshroom into a normal cow while dropping five mushrooms, remove a snow golem’s pumpkin, and remove a poppy planted on a copper golem. Equipment removal has distinct restrictions: only the wolf’s owner can remove its armor; saddles, horse armor, llama carpets, and happy ghast harnesses cannot be removed while the mob is being ridden. A dispenser can perform many shearing actions, but cannot carve pumpkins, trim vines or kelp, or remove mob equipment. Failed actions, such as shearing a sheep with no wool, do not consume durability; a dispenser shearing a hive or nest does not anger bees.

Durability, repair, and enchantments

The shears’ maximum durability is 238. Successful shearing and breaking a non-instant block each consume one durability; blocks that break instantly do not. Two damaged pairs can be combined in crafting or a grindstone for their remaining durability plus a 5% bonus. An anvil can combine pairs while preserving enchantments. Efficiency increases mining speed, Unbreaking can negate some durability consumption, and Mending repairs the shears when experience is obtained. Silk Touch is listed as Bedrock-only, not a Java enchantment.

Use limits

Shears have specific supported targets rather than a universal harvesting effect. The reference identifies plants and blocks that can be collected in item form, and notes that breaking tall grass, tall seagrass, or large ferns yields two units of the corresponding small plant. Weeping and twisting vines broken directly with shears have a guaranteed item drop; this does not apply to vines broken by destruction of their supporting vines.

Limitations and tradeoffs

• Successful shearing and non-instant block breaking consume durability, while failed attempts do not.
• Dispenser shearing supports many interactions but excludes pumpkin carving, vine or kelp trimming, and mob equipment removal.
• Silk Touch is listed for Bedrock only.