How to use enchantment books in Minecraft

Apply one book to a fresh item

1. Craft an anvil from three iron blocks and four iron ingots: 31 ingots in total.
2. Put the item you want to keep in the left input and the enchanted book in the right input.
3. Check the output’s name and enchantment tooltip. Check the level cost before taking it.
4. If the output is correct and affordable, take it. The right-hand book is consumed; the result carries the combined work history.

Example: a fresh Unbreaking III book onto a fresh compatible sword costs 3 experience levels in the pinned Java model. It produces work count 1. Adding a fresh Mending I book next costs 2 for Mending plus 1 prior-work level: 3 more.

When the book does not work

• Wrong equipment: Power belongs on a bow, not a sword. Check the compatible-item list for that enchantment.
• Conflicting choice: Infinity and Mending are alternatives for an ordinary bow. A stored book does not override this rule.
• Too Expensive: a modeled application at 40 levels or more is blocked in Survival even if you have enough experience.
• Unsupported calculator input: existing target enchantments and books with multiple different enchantments require checking the actual game; this site’s row-based planner does not model them.

Combine duplicate books deliberately

Two equal levels can upgrade: Sharpness III and Sharpness III make IV, while III and II retain III. The output cannot exceed the enchantment’s normal maximum in this model. The book placed on the right controls its enchantment contribution to the charge; swapping different books can change the cost.

Where a book comes from is a separate question

Enchanting tables, trading and loot have different pools. Mending is excluded from the table; Swift Sneak and Wind Burst have specific acquisition routes. An arbitrary loot book does not have a universal work penalty. Record the history of books you already combined rather than assigning a penalty just because they were found.

A grindstone removes ordinary enchantments instead of transferring them to a book. Plan before applying a rare book and do not rely on being able to extract it again.